


Sugar Sweet

by Raepocalypse



Category: Block B
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxiety, M/M, Monsta X ensemble - Freeform, Multi, OT3, Rating Changed, Sugar Daddy AU, graphic depictions of anxiety, ikon ensemble - Freeform, winner ensemble - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-05-05 11:27:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 46,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14617452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raepocalypse/pseuds/Raepocalypse
Summary: Lee Minhyuk is rich and lonely with weird (lovable, but weird) friends. Kim Yukwon cannot make rent. Luckily for them both, there's a site that can match up people just like them and a mixer to throw them all together. It's not supposed to be about feelings, but Minhyuk has always been a romantic and Yukwon has always fallen hard and fast.Jaehyo is just trying to navigate the oddity of two people's interest.[[EDIT]] RATING HAS CHANGED please don't be shocked





	1. Mix It Up

**Author's Note:**

> Idk man I just came out to have a good time.

Minhyuk rubbed at his temples as he sat back with a glass of red. He loved his friends, he did, and he appreciated them, but nights like this just made him feel… alone. Tired. Most nights, they were so good about spreading their attention around, making him feel like he was kept in the loop, especially after a break up. 

It had been months, though, and the sting of loss had faded, leaving him just feeling empty and annoyed. Tired. Alone. 

He didn’t blame them. Kyung and Jiho had been together so long they were basically one entity, hands threaded together as Kyung told a story and gestured wildly with his free one. Jiho was smiling, leaning on his other hand and giving his boyfriend his undivided attention, a soft look on his face as he watched him. Cute. He loved that usually, how cute they were. It made his heart swell with affection at how sweet it often was, but today it just made his head throb. 

He blamed Taeil and Jihoon a little. Taeil was their newest addition, but only because Minhyuk couldn’t keep hold of a partner himself. He’d come to them when the younger was lonely and trolling websites, trying to find someone who would keep his bed warm in exchange for however much spoiling they could tolerate. Several years and even more tattoos later, he was covered in ink paid for by Jihoon’s family money and fulyl integrated with the rest of him. Minhyuk wouldn’t want to be without him. He never would. Still, he was sprawled halfway on top of Jihoon, big hands at his waist as they laughed loudly about whatever it was that they were laughing about. 

“Minhyukkie,” Kyung sighed, swiping the bottle as he reached to pour another glass. 

He glanced up at him, brow lifted, and internally cringed as the rest of them started to focus in on him as well. “Just let me drink,” he grumbled, making another swipe for the bottle. It went out of his reach and passed to Taeil, where he would never get it back by speed or force. 

Jihoon sat forward some, folding his hands on the table now and giving him a concerned look. “Are you okay? I thought you were feeling better.”

“I was,” he replied, then quickly corrected himself. “I am. I’m fine. Give my wine back.”

The mood at the table had taken such a quick downturn that Minhyuk felt like he was reeling. “It’s been months, Minhyukkie,” Taeil said softly, as Kyung moved around the table to sit beside him instead, pressed close to his side. Without hesitation, Jiho joined him. 

The show of support was appreciated, but it made him feel  _ worse _ . “Yeah, and I’m over him, I don’t give a shit. I’m fine. But it sucks. This sucks. Okay? I don’t want  _ him _ back, and I was fine being alone, but…”

“You know what you should do,” Jihoon piped up, sounding like he was having a  _ brilliant _ idea, which was really bad news for him in the long run. “You should try one of those sites like where Taeil-hyung and I met.”

Taeil’s head whipped around so fast his hat nearly flew off, his brows raised. “You think so?”

“Absolutely not,” Minhyuk said firmly, making another swipe for the wine. He got his fingers around it, but with Taeil still holding onto it, it didn’t even budge as he tried to take it back. 

“Why not?” Kyung continued. His tone was musing, his expression thoughtful, and this was all heading downhill. “You have enough, you  _ make _ enough to support someone else. You don’t like going out and meeting people. You get to skip the whole ‘what do you do’ thing-”

“It’s honestly pretty nice to skip all the stuff where you don’t know what’s okay and what isn’t,” Jihoon offered. “All those places have rules you have to fill out so people know what’s okay and stuff.”

Minhyuk grunted noncommitally and gave the bottle another tug. It still didn’t move. He reached for Kyung’s glass of soju only to have that taken from his hands by Jiho before it reached his lips. 

“There’s a mixer coming up,” Taeil offered. “Like, you have to be on the site, but there’s a mixer so people can meet safely coming up. Do you want to go?”

“How do you know there’s a mixer?” Jihoon asked, without the barest trace of jealousy, bless him. 

“You weren’t the first guy I met there,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “You’re just the only one I wanted to stay with. I still talk to some of them, though. They were cool guys, but we didn’t really click.”

Minhyuk ignored the way Jihoon beamed at that, the puff of pride and rubbed at his temple again. “I can’t explain to any of you how much I don’t want to go to a mixer of people I don’t know. I wouldn’t be able to talk to any of them anyway.”

“We’ll go with you,” Jiho shrugged. 

“You have to sign up for the site,” Taeil countered, but he didn’t sound like he was on Minhyuk’s side. None of them were on his side. Traitors. 

Kyung shrugged, giving him a squeeze and resting his cheek on his shoulder. “We’ll sign up. All of us. Jiho-ah is my sugar daddy now.”

“I want to be signed up on the other side of things,” Taeil announced, pulling his phone out. “Jihoon-ah is my baby now.”

The younger let out a booming laugh, but kissed his cheek anyway. “Sure. I’m okay with that.”

Minhyuk whined, grabbing for another glass and this time no one stopped him from drinking. Unfortunately, it was the watered down soda none of them had been drinking since they decided they would get a ride instead of having a DD. 

“Hey,” Jiho said, poking at his side until he looked up. When he did, he got caught in a hard study, his friend trying to gauge his mood. “I think this is a good idea, but we won’t make you do it. Obviously. Just… think about it, okay?”

Minhyuk frowned, but nodded. When he swiped the wine again, they let him have it an he poured another glass. The rest of the night, though, was better. Easier. With Jiho and Kyung on either side of him and Taeil and Jihoon across the table laughing, it was easier to forget how alone he felt. 

The next morning was bad in a different way. He woke up feeling sick and with a headache that felt like railroad spikes behind his eyes, hot and sticky from a night of sweating on his sheets. When he went to get up, he realized that it was especially bad because Jiho and Kyung were both piled into his bed as well. The three of them barely fit, tangled together to keep from falling to the floor. He carefully extracted himself only to tumble off the bed in a heap and groan at the light coming through the windows. 

The shower helped. The coffee helped more. He was nursing his third cup and checking his phone when Kyung shuffled in and poured one for himself, face puffy and eyes slitted. He heard the shower turn on in the other room and was quietly grateful that they at least weren’t showering together. 

Kyung’s voice was thick and cracking when he spoke, voice groggy. “Sugar daddy,” was all he said, sitting heavily at the table. 

Minhyuk paused, taking another long sip, and then nodding once. Kyung nodded back and settled in to wait for Jiho to get out of the shower. An hour later, they were all sitting in a cafe with dark sunglasses on, nursing hangover remedies and setting up accounts on the site Taeil had sent them. 

***

The mixer was three weeks out when it was brought up for the first time. Taeil urged him to at least take a look, even if he didn’t talk to anyone. At the very least, it gave him something to do, and he was worried that if he was completely inactive on the site, they wouldn’t let him go. (Even Jiho and Kyung were using it, just in case, but it had turned into some kind of bizarre roleplay scenario that none of them were brave enough to ask about.)

Three weeks had seemed like a lot when Minhyuk had been told when it was, and it seemed like it was looming on the horizon, like time was dragging on slowly as the date came closer. Somehow, though, it snuck up on him between work and avoidance. The day of, he flipped through the new account and looked at the twenty seven messages he had never replied to, had been too nervous to get back to, and kicked himself. He should have said something. He should have said anything. Now if any of these people saw him, he looked like a dick when really he had just told himself day after day that he would reply tomorrow when he could think of what to say. Now he was out of tomorrows and he hadn’t thought of anything. 

The car pulled up outside of his home and the door popped open, Kyung smiling up at him from the back seat. “Up front or back here with us, Minhyukkie?” he asked. 

For a moment, he was torn. He wanted to sit with them, but not feel awkward. Sitting away from all of them, though, sitting with the driver, felt like it would crush him with anxiety. So instead, he nudged Kyung to the side and climbed in, closing the door and looking into the back. 

They’d all gone very…  _ them _ for this event. Minhyuk himself had stressed about clothes for two hours before landing on something he  _ thought _ would be understated and then instantly decided it was boring. Now he was in tight red pants and a black blazer. The tee dressed it down enough to be appropriate and, he hoped, made it seem like he wasn’t trying too hard. Jiho had done something similar, but softer, with a snapback and rolled sleeves, looser pants and a lighter shirt. He looked like he didn’t care, which made sense because he didn’t. He had no reason to. 

Kyung had leaned in again on how small he was, with sleeves to his fingertips and and oversized coat. He looked adorable, soft, and Minhyuk knew that was a trap. Not that he wasn’t adorable or soft, but that he was going to spend the night soaking up attention before “choosing” to go home with Jiho. 

In the back seat, Jihoon was, predictably, drowning in Ralph Lauren. A button up shirt, a sweater, shoes. He couldn’t prove it, but he would bet is company that the jeans were Ralph Lauren too. Taeil, meanwhile, had gone literally as casual as he could. A massive hoodie that was yellow enough to stop traffic and jeans that were half destroyed. He didn’t even try to look like he belonged there. He didn’t look like someone who was looking for a partner. Minhyuk couldn’t blame him, but why was he coming if he wasn’t going to try?

The others chatted as they drove. Minhyuk chewed at his nails until Kyung slapped his hands away. “You’re going to be fine,” he said softly, nudging him with his shoulder. 

“I know,” he mumbled, and it sounded hollow even to him. 

“Hey,” Jiho said, reaching across the back of the seat and giving his shoulder a squeeze. “We’ll be right there. Okay?”

“Okay.” 

“We’ll help you look,” Kyung offered. “We can wingman.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Taeil piped up, sitting back and scrolling through his phone. “You need to keep the really weird people away from him.”

Jihoon nodded quickly. “I bet lots of people will talk to him, but we should probably make sure nobody is, uh… you know. Pushy.”

Minhyuk nodded again, his stomach twisting as he lifted a hand to chew at his nails again until Kyung slapped it away. 

The car pulled to a stop. They had wasted the time on the way, and now he was out of road too. No more tomorrows, no more road, just a room full of people who were literally just interested in his money and his bed. 

Kyung reached past him and opened the door, urging him out as Jiho paid the driver and rubbing his arm to try and calm him down. “You’ll feel better once we get some drinks,” he assured him. 

Jiho came up to his other side, arm wrapped around Minhyuk’s shoulders. He walked forward, dragging him along to the door and shooting the attendant a smile. Nametags were handed out and Taeil slapped the sticker onto Minhyuk’s jacket a little harder than necessary. With a serious look, he tugged the jacket straight, brushed off his shoulders, placed both small hands on either side of his face. “They’re more nervous than you are,” he said seriously. “This is nerve wracking for everyone.” He reached up, dragged Minhyuk’s face down and planted a kiss on his forehead. “And no matter what, you’re not going home alone because you’ve got us. Okay?”

With several more pats and reassurances, the group of them branched off and spread out in the room. Minhyuk stayed at the doorway for a few seconds, catching his breath and wiping tint from Taeil’s lips from his forehead, even if he wasn’t sure it was there. A waiter passed by, offering him a tray with a glass and he snatched it, downing half in one go. He needed to coat his nerves in something before they began the night. 

***

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Jaehyo said, as firmly as he could. 

“Then figure out a way to make rent,” Yukwon shot back, earning a scowl from his roommate. He didn’t look up, turning his head back and forth to choose between earrings. 

“The black ones,” Jaehyo snapped, flicking the back of his head as he headed to the bathroom. 

Yukwon continued to ignore him, although he did put the black earring in on the other side. “I’ll do your hair if you do my make up,” he offered, which received a grunt in return as Jaehyo lined his eyes carefully. He didn’t need make up to be devastating, but it was always a plus when he did it. 

Tonight, they were both pulling out all the stops. Lightly lined eyes, tinted lips, smoky shadow on their lids, the barest amount of gel in their hair. Jaehyo had broken out the choker and the blazer, Yukwon settling for a simple black sweater. They didn’t have a lot to dress up with, but they were lucky enough to be pretty in whatever they chose. 

“What if this doesn’t work?” Jaehyo asked, a hand on Yukwon’s chin as he tilted his head and dragged the kohl across his lid. 

“Then we both get third jobs,” he mumbled, eyes still closed. 

Jaehyo huffed, his breath fanning across Yukwon’s face. “Fourth for me.”

“Farming gold isn’t a job, Hyo.”

Another flick landed on Yukwon’s forehead and he flinched back, shooting him a dirty look with one eye finished. The world looked awkward, off center for a moment until he closed his eyes again. “It pays and it keeps me up at night, it’s a job. It buys the fucking groceries.”

“Then why don’t we have any groceries?” he shot back, going quiet as the kohl touched his face again. 

Jaehyo finished his eyes quickly and then held out two tubes for him to choose for his lips. “Because we were behind on the electricity bill. What if it does work, but they make us move out?”

“Then we both get third jobs,” Yukwon insisted again, raising a brow. This seemed to settle Jaehyo a little more and he tapped one of the colors without looking. It didn’t matter. Jaehyo knew what would go well with this and he trusted him. The other tube went back into the bag on the counter and he parted his lips to let him apply the first. 

“Promise me neither of us is gonna go with a guy who’s, like… mean. Or weird. Or just wants to fuck all the time,” Jaehyo mumbled. He pulled back, rubbing his lips together as though Yukwon needed the cue to know what to do. 

He nodded, allowing Jaehyo to clean the edges with a piece of tissue before he stood and traded spots, pushing the taller man down onto the side of the tub and starting to arrange his hair carefully. “Neither of us is going to just suddenly sell ourselves, Jaehyo. This isn’t last resort territory. This is… we’re just trying. Trying one thing, one time.”

“All the guys who have messaged me from this site have been a million years old,” Jaehyo mumbled. “Or weird. Like really weird. Like asked me if they could tie me up weird.”

“You’ve been tied up before,” Yukwon replied dryly. “I remember distinctly that you liked it. I remember losing sleep over how much you liked it. These walls are thin.”

He rolled his eyes, earning a tug to his hair to keep his head still. “Yeah, but I knew that guy. These guys just message me out of the blue and ask. I’m not just gonna let a stranger tie me up because they pay my rent. That’s a level of trust I am not willing to put in them.”

Yukwon pursed his lips, grabbing a little more product and rubbing his fingers together, styling the hair into place. “Yeah, well, now you can tell them to fuck off in person and get drunk on someone else’s dime. At the very least, we can drink for free for a night and then work on money in the morning again, okay? Just. Stop thinking about money for one night and act like we’re just going to meet guys. Okay?”

Jaehyo was silent for a moment, but he nodded, getting up when Yukwon finished and turned to fix his own hair. “We should hurry if we want to catch the bus, then.”

“Got it.”

The last of their routine was done quickly, although not record time, since Jaehyo as far as the door before he realized that the shoes he was wearing were dark blue and not black, followed directly by Yukwon making a sudden decision that the belt he had on was wrong. (“Your sweater is so long you can’t even see it, now let’s  _ go _ .” “Shut up or I’ll smudge your eyeliner.”)

The bus stop, too, was a bit of a walk, but Yukwon felt like he needed that. He felt like he needed a few moments to collect himself. Jaehyo was still a bundle of raw nerves, but he was settling into what they called his customer face, the one that got him tips and won over angry tables at the cafe and the diner. That was probably for the best. He may not be happy, but at least he was less likely to snap at someone. Yukwon, however, didn’t really have a customer face. He stocked shelves at night, away from them, and walked dogs when people were too busy. He didn’t have to interact with customers. He had no context for this. 

By the time they reached the mixer, it was well into full swing, although people were still arriving. Some of them were practically glittering, flexing their wealth despite being told specifically that it was a semiformal, somewhat casual event. Others were doing their best in past-season dresses and thrift shop upcycles. (Like they were. Luckily, they were among the ones pulling that look off.)

The attendant at the door greeted them without batting an eye, smiling and handing them name tags once she had checked to be sure they belonged there. Once inside, both of them moved out of the doorway and then halted. 

“There’s a lot of people here,” Jaehyo breathed, fidgeting where he stood.

Yukwon nodded, and when he felt his roommate’s shoulder bump into his, he wasn’t sure if it was him seeking the comfort or if Jaehyo had been the one to move closer. He darted a hand out as a waiter passed and snagged two glasses without checking to see what they were. Without looking at one another, they tapped them together and downed them in one go. 

“Stay together or divide and conquer?” Jaehyo asked. 

Yukwon cut him a look, finding him still looking across the room nervously. Most people seemed to be either roaming alone or pairing off to lean close and murmur charming words. They probably shouldn’t stick together or someone would think they  _ were _ together. Still, Yukwon couldn’t bring himself to tell Jaehyo to go it alone. He didn’t really want to himself. 

“Who will wingman for your dumb ass if I leave you by yourself?” he asked with a smirk.

That was rewarded with a nervous grin in return and Jaehyo dropped their glasses off with a waiter, snagged another two and handed one off. “So what kind of guy are we looking for  _ exactly _ ?”

***

Minhyuk was on his third glass now and he was getting a headache despite that. There was a lot of chatter in this room, an a lot of perfume, and a lot of warm bodies. He could step outside, but people were smoking out there and he didn’t want to smell like that. He could excuse himself to the bathroom, but when he was in there before, someone had given him a once over that made him feel exceptionally awkward. He could hide under the table, but he would need at least three more glasses before that felt like a real viable option and not just a possible future. 

For now, he was hiding out in the corner, taking a break from small talk and curious hands. At least three people he knew were here, people he knew from work or through connections, and all of them had taken one look at him and then turned away. Like this was a dirty secret. It shouldn’t be, he thought, although he supposed for some people, it was going to be. 

He could see Kyung across the room, commanding the attention of three women and a man while Jiho stood nearby, keeping a fond but watchful eye on him as he soaked it up. There was a table where Jihoon had started some kind of drinking game with a pair of strangers who were already holding hands, as if laying claim to one another even as they put their attention elsewhere. That was nice. He liked that. Like a normal fucking couple. Taeil was nowhere to be seen, but Minhyuk expected that was because he was lost in the crowds somewhere, hidden by bodies taller than his own. 

Abruptly, the solitude of his corner was interrupted and Minhyuk turned to find a man who was striking, beautiful, with expertly gelled hair and thick black earrings. “Hi, do you mind?” he asked, darting a nervous look out into the crowd again, like he was avoiding someone. 

“Not at all,” he replied, shifting to turn a little more toward him and tip his head in greeting. “Minhyuk.”

“Yukwon,” the man said, almost absently. He gave a look back to the crowd, which prompted Minhyuk’s eyes to follow and try to see what he was seeing. He didn’t catch anything of interest. “Sorry, I… There was this guy who I didn’t reply to on the site after a little while and he’s here, and I just really don’t want him to see me.”

Minhyuk raised his brows. “Oh? I mean. Are you okay?”

Yukwon nodded quickly, focusing on him finally and, god, once he had his full attention, he felt like he was never going to move. Just the look nailed him to the floor. “Yeah, I’m fine. He didn’t do anything to me, but he, uh. He was just kind of pushy in the messages and I’m not really into it. Now I’m looking for my friend.”

“Friend?” he repeated. Friend like friends he had brought or friend like someone he had met here? Why did he give a shit what kind of friend? He didn’t. God, he didn’t at all and no one could make him say otherwise. 

Relaxing a little and breathing out a huff (from red, red,  _ red _ lips) Yukwon tilted his head back to the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. “My roommate. He didn’t really want to come and I promised I would stay with him, but then we got separated and I don’t know where he went. He isn’t answering his phone, and I don’t know if that’s very bad or very good.”

“We should hope for very good,” Minhyuk said, scanning the crowd as well, brow furrowed in a little concern. Not that he would be able to pick this friend out. He couldn’t even find someone he did know, much less someone he’s never seen before in his life. “Sorry you had to deal with the pushy guy - or, you know. Almost had to.”

Yukwon shrugged, relaxing a little more against the wall and Minhyuk started to feel a little better that he wasn’t proping this one up alone anymore. Before, when someone walked up and tried to talk to him, it was all wandering eyes and curious questions, but he was finding that he liked how Yukwon barely seemed invested in this as a whole. Like he was already too tired to stay here. “I mean, that’s sort of the nature of dating in general, right? And this is like the high stakes poker of dating. I’m better at poker than dating, but it doesn’t really translate here, unfortunately.” 

A laugh bubbled up, startled out of Minhyuk by the weird analogy, and it drew Yukwon’s attention in full, finally, and he grinned back. For the first time since he’d come to hide with him, his sharp eyes flickered over Minhyuk and he was quietly thankful that he had dressed well tonight, glad he had chosen the red pants that hugged his thighs and the blazer pushed up to show his forearms, and the name tag on his chest with the little gold border, denoting him as someone here with money. Yukwon’s shone back up at him with a subtle silver, the other side of the coin. Someone here with something Minhyuk thought was more valuable than what he had to offer. Time. Maybe affection. He found himself really hoping he could win that from the man beside him. 

There was a moment, a tense few seconds where neither of them seemed to know what to say, what to do, like they were both waiting for the other to move forward. Minhyuk knew this was what would happen, knew that he was supposed to be good at this, was expected to be in some kind of position of… confidence? Power? But he wasn’t. He felt lost and unsure and a little smitten and he didn’t know what he was supposed to say here. 

“So what do you do for a living?” Yukwon finally asked, as though he was reciting from a script, but not in a bad way. More like he was just as lost as Minhyuk and desperately trying to get them both back on track. 

“I’m the COO of a record label,” he replied vaguely, but was quietly grateful for the question. “It was a passion project before, something for me and a few friends to work on since the big companies were all shitty. Now we’re the big company, but I’m hoping we’re not shitty.”

A smile passed over Yukwon’s face and he leaned his head on the wall, a little fondly. “I’m sure you’re not shitty. Even saying you hope you’re not kind of put you above a lot of them.”

Before he could stop himself, Minhyuk found himself asking, “What about you?” Quickly, he tried to backtrack. “Not- I mean, not ‘are you shitty’ but what do you do? You don’t have to answer that. I just remembered I’m not supposed to ask that. I’m sorry. You-”

Laughing, Yukwon interrupted, “I walk dogs in the afternoons and I stock shelves at night. It’s kind of shitty, but I don’t think I am.”

A smile pulled at Minhyuk’s face again, relief pouring over him that he hadn’t fucked this up yet. There was still time to do that, but he was really hoping he would run out of that time too. 

***

Jaehyo was going to commit a murder. No one would even blame him, he was sure, because he would just tell them how Yukwon wandered off in this pack of fucking wolves and left him alone here. They would understand. 

Normally, Jaehyo could control a crowd easily. He could handle a party of ten looking at him, making several demands at once. He’d fielded a bachelorette party asking him if he would strip for them once, and that had been one hell of a feat, especially considering how drunk they all were. 

This, though, this was something else. He was stuck, trapped in the mindset he used for work and therefore repeating  _ be nice be nice be nice _ over and over in his head while a woman with a lot of perfume and not enough manners kept a tight arm around his waist. His nerves were fraying quickly, and he was feeling raw before and absolutely bloody now. 

He cast around one more time, looking for Yukwon, or even someone who looked  _ friendly _ , and found nothing and no one. Well. He found a lot of someones, but they all seemed to think this was completely normal, the way Jaehyo was tethered to someone’s body, with her pressed against his side. 

At another coo over how handsome he was, a hand coming up to toy with the choker, Jaehyo let out a grunt and jerked away. His hand shot up and grabbed hers, pulling it away. “Please let go of me. You really are giving me a headache,” he said firmly. 

“That’s no way to talk to someone who’s just trying to help you,” she shot back, looking affronted. 

As gently as he could, but much more forcefully than he had been for the past ten minutes, Jaehyo extracted himself from the woman’s hold. He put both hands on her shoulders, stepping back far enough to keep her at arm’s length. “I don’t need help that badly,” he told her firmly, then turned on his heel and ducked into the crowd. 

Another waiter passed and Jaehyo snatched a glass from the tray. He was on four, maybe five, and was losing count, but he needed it to soothe the headache and the nerves and pretend he didn’t feel quite so abandoned. He was making his way to a corner when he caught sight of them. 

Yukwon was there, tucked into the shadows with someone who was… really, really fucking handsome. Casual enough that he fit what they were supposed to be going for, tailored enough that he looked amazing. He wasn’t flaunting his money the way many here were, but he had a watch on that Jaehyo could tell from here was expensive. More to the point, he looked… nice. Sweet. Smiling soft and dimpled at Yukwon with his hands to himself and his eyes trained firmly on his face.

Yukwon already looked like he was head over heels. He had always fallen hard and fast and the context here didn’t change that. He looked just as soft, maybe more so, leaning on the wall with his head tilted and a smile on his lips. From here, Jaehyo could see how fond he looked, how he was already enamored with this wealthy stranger, and it wasn’t the promise of being able to make rent that urged him to back away. Rent was secondary. Yukwon being happy came first. 

He sighed heavily and dragged a hand down his face before he remembered the make up he had probably just smeared and knocked back the rest of his drink. 

“You’re going to be full of bad decisions if you keep that up,” a voice said from his left, and he turned to see a tiny man in a yellow hoodie looking up at him. There was a purple tattoo on his neck, huge and probably expensive, and Jaehyo wondered why he was here if he could afford something like that.

“This whole thing was a bad decision,” he mumbled back. He wasn’t really interested in making friends here, but if someone was going to talk to him, he’d rather it be someone on the verge of eviction like he was than someone who was  _ just trying to help _ . 

A laugh broke out and the man moved a little closer, standing beside him and looking out over the room. “What are you here for, then, if it’s such a bad decision?”

Jaehyo sighed again, using the tip of his finger to try and get his liner back into shape. He could go to the bathroom and fix it, but he didn’t want anyone here to feel like they were worth the effort anymore. “Because I love my roommate, even when he abandons me to talk to rich guys who might help us keep our apartment.”

“You came with a roommate?” the man asked, starting to walk. Jaehyo must not have been really thinking, because his feet started moving on their own, following him across the room. 

“Came with him,” he sighed, flicking a glance over at Yukwon and his new friend with his gold lined name tag and his soft, dark eyes. “Don’t know if I’ll leave with him now. God, the cab home is going to suck.”

“Where do you live?” the guy asked, taking a seat at a table with a handful of other people who don’t even look up at them. “I’ll split the tab with you. I’m Taeil.”

“Jaehyo.” He sat heavily in a chair, catching a waiter’s sleeve and asking if he can bring water by. It was beyond time for him to get something besides booze in him. He turned back to the table, folding his arms and looking at the short man beside him. On his other side, someone was playing a drinking game with a giggling pair. He had on what looks like a lot of Ralph Lauren, and the man across from him wore several thick gold rings on his fingers. The girl was wearing a simple dress, plain and pretty, and it left her looking lovely. Jaehyo hoped that’s how it would be for Yukwon, smiling with his new beau like they belong together, like it’s genuine. 

“Don’t you have someone to go home with too?” he asked, flicking a pointed glance at the man laughing loudly as he failed and then taking a long drink. 

Taeil turned around to look at the other man, shrugged, and turned back to Jaehyo. “Eh. We’ll see.” There was a conspiratorial smile on his face, a turn of the lips on his small mouth. “Unless I find someone I want to go home with more.” 

Jaehyos’ brow furrowed, head tilting curiously. Surely, he couldn’t mean him, because this whole event was orchestrated for them to pair off in a very specific way, and Jaehyo had nothing to provide for this guy. He barely had anything to provide for himself. Finally, his eyes flicked down, scanning over the eye-bleedingly yellow hoodie and finding no nametag at all. There was nothing to tell him if this Taeil was here under silver or gold borders and Jaehyo felt like he was suddenly standing on sand when he thought he was on stone. 

“Where’s your, uh…” he started, cutting off when Taeil grinned wider at him. He frowned in reply. 

“Nametags are stupid,” he said flippantly, waving a hand that Jaehyo now realized was  _ also _ covered in tattoos. What part of this man wasn’t covered in tattoos? “Besides, I’m sort of neither anyway.”

“Sort of neither,” Jaehyo repeated, frowning tighter. “You mean you crashed. You’re not supposed to do that.” He was trying to sound disapproving, trying to sound offended that he would waste his time like this when he was supposed to be finding someone to pay his rent. He was failing, though, and he knew it, because he felt positively  _ giddy _ that there was someone here who cared so fucking little about it. 

Taeil laughed again, smiling brightly, and it drew the attention of the man behind him a little. “I’m here for moral support,” he told Jaehyo. 

“Is that why you didn’t even bother to dress up? You look like you’re about to get on a school bus.” Maybe he was a little drunk, but the way Taeil’s eyes sparked up in amusement when he insulted him made him smile. 

“For someone who thinks this is a waste of time, you dressed up an awful lot yourself,” Taeil replied. 

Jaehyo rolled his eyes, taking the glass of water that comes back to him and sipping at it. “That was pathetic. That was the saddest attempt at sass I’ve ever heard in my life. I was really expecting better of you.”

Another laugh and Taeil leaned forward a little, his eyes sparking with something a little like mischief and a lot like interest. Jaehyo knew already, deep in his gut, that he would regret challenging him on that, but it was already done and he was feeling loose with liquor and pleasantly familiar with this stranger. Something about the light teasing put him at ease more than any cloying sweetness could.

“Taeil-hyung,” the man behind him says, his voice deep enough to go  _ straight _ down Jaehyo’s spine. He smiled over his shoulder, the game over, and Jaehyo noted how polar opposite they are. He looked sweet and soft and young where Taeil is a little menacing, the only young thing about him his stature. He was big where Taeil is tiny. He was neatly put together in designer brands while Taeil was wearing a hoodie several sizes too big, splattered with color and ink and art everywhere his skin shows. “Who is your friend?”

“This is Jaehyo,” Taeil replied easily, waving a hand forward as he sat back. “Jaehyo, this is Jihoon.”

Jihoon offered a smile, wobbly and cute with eyes that sparkled. Was that from the drinking game or was he always like that? Jaehyo couldn’t say, but he figured the flush was from the first, at the very least. He reached out, long arm passing Taeil and offering Jaehyo a big hand to shake. When he grasped it, Jaehyo felt like he was going to come out of his seat with the force of his ‘nice to meet you.’

“So you two are…?”

“Taeil and Jihoon, yes, that is our names,” Taeil nodded, as though Jaehyo was going to ask for their names again. He tried to correct it, but he was interrupted abruptly by a casual wave of his hand. “Did you notice there’s no food here? It sucks. Do you want to leave?”

“I could leave,” Jihoon said with a nod, turning to Jaehyo. He gave him a smile, and expectant look. It was a clear invitation, but Jaehyo suddenly felt like he’d been led into a trap, with a cute boy and tattoos as bait. 

Casting around, he looked for Yukwon again, only to find that he had moved to a table and was fully engrossed in conversation. He was talking about dogs now. Jaehyo could tell from far away, by the animated look and the way he waved his hands. Shit. “I, uh, I should really wait for my friend,” he said carefully. 

“You said your friend probably found someone to go home with,” Taeil countered, getting to his feet. Jihoon stood as well and then he was moving forward, offering Jaehyo a hand. “Come on. There’s a place not far from here that’s open all night and they serve really good bibimbap.”

He frowned again, looking between the two of them. Moral support, Taeil had said, which led Jaehyo to think that maybe he was there are moral support for Jihoon, who was now looking at him with soft, curious eyes and offering him his hand. He felt like a commodity, a prize Taeil had won to be passed off. 

“I should really go home,” Jaehyo tried again, in direct opposition to what he had just said. Disappointment flashed over Taeil’s face quickly, there and gone, while Jihoon’s stayed passively curious, pleasant. “I mean, I just… I don’t know. If I should.”

Jihoon turned to Taeil, pausing only when he caught his look, and cocked his head curiously. There was an odd, awkward moment before he turned back to his seat and plopped down. “Okay. We can stay here then.”

“You don’t have to stay here,” Jaehyo countered, shaking his head again. 

Another wobbly smile, wide and open and friendly, as Jihoon nodded. “Well, yeah, but neither do you and you still are. Besides, we only came here for moral support, so we can leave now or later or whenever. Right, hyung?”

Taeil nodded, taking his seat again. His expression was back to neutral, but mischievous, and Jaehyo wondered if that was just his default. “Yeah, the one who needed it seems to be doing okay now.”

It took a few moments for Jaehyo to connect that the moral support wasn’t from Taeil for Jihoon. They were both here for that. On the heels of that, he caught Jihoon’s hand on Taeil’s knee, caught the little rim of gold around Jihoon’s name tag, and then a second name tag slapped to his arm with a little gold border, bearing the name  _ Taeil _ like a mark of ownership more than a signifier. 

“Are you… are you both trying to-?” he started, but cut himself off when Taeil grinned at him again. 

“I mean, we came here for moral support, but we are more than happy to help with any bad decisions you want help making or not making,” the man offered, and under the teasing of it, he looked almost a little hopeful. Like there was genuine interest. 

Jaehyo looked at Taeil, then up at Jihoon, who was as open and friendly as could be. Pleasant. Happy. A little drunk. “Are you… okay with that?” he asked, brow furrowing down, and he didn’t realize that he should probably ask  _ himself _ if he was okay with it first. 

He beamed, letting out the booming laugh Jaehyo had been hearing all night without knowing where it was coming from. This close, and this tipsy, it felt like it warmed him a little. “If we’re going to be interested in someone else, we’re going to do it together,” he explained, then reached out a hand again, looking ready to stand up. “You sure you don’t want to go ge something to eat?”

Jaehyo hesitated, frowning, looking over at where Yukwon was still talking about dogs, where the man across from him looked like he could happily allow himself to be stabbed if it meant he could keep listening, where people in clothes that cost more than he made in a week flirted with disingenuous 20-somethings. 

“Just a dinner,” Jihoon assured him. “And a ride home when you’re done.”

“And if you have fun,” Taeil continued, once Jaehyo was looking at them again. “We can go from there.”

His brain was still a little fuzzy with stress, smoothed over with wine and cider and beer. His head still hurt from perfume. His feet still hurt from working a full shift this morning. He was tired. But Jaehyo was a man of bad decisions, so he reached out and put his hand in Jihoon’s and tried not to feel pleased when Taeil slipped an arm around his waist on the way out the door. He was in the car on the way to the diner before he remembered he had a phone. Eight texts from Yukwon flashed up at him, but he sent a quick couple back to keep him from worrying more. 

_ Leaving with some friends(?) Have a good night and be safe xoxo _ _   
_ _ Dimples is cute. I approve. _


	2. Ride Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyo and Yukwon both get home by the end of the night. It's not exciting, but they like it all the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello we are on the second chapter and already nothing is happening. I swear things will begin happening for real soon.

Jihoon and Taeil had taken Jaehyo out of the event and bundled him into a car, sandwiched between the two of them. There was something comforting for him about the fact that they had skipped past the valet and called a car instead. Maybe they just hadn’t brought their own car, but either way, it put them all on neutral ground and it felt… more even. Comfortable. 

They made it to the restaurant in relative silence and Jaehyo found himself shuffled in and deposited in a table with a beer before long. 

“So what do you do,” Taeil asked, sipping at his own drink and eyeing Jaehyo across the table. 

“You’re not supposed to ask me that,” he replied instantly. “It’s against the rules.”

Taeil snorted, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, well, I always thought that was stupid. How are we supposed to get to know you?”

“What do you do for fun?” Jihoon asked, politely curious. 

“Uh,,” was the intelligent response Jaehyo came up with. It took him a moment to remember the things he liked to do outside of work, since gaming had become work about a month ago. Eventually, he came up with real words. “I like to watch baseball. The Giants. Haven’t been to a game in a long time. I like fishing too, when I have the time.” Which wasn’t often anymore. 

“You like fish?” Taeil asked, perking up a little more. “We have a fish tank. It’s huge. Don’t go fishing in it, though. Those are mine.”

“They were a gift for Taeil, when he moved in,” Jihoon said fondly.

“How long ago was that?” Jaehyo asked, thankful for an excuse to ask how long they’d been together, how old this relationship was that they were seeking out someone else to bring in. 

Jihoon frowned, looking thoughtful and Taeil pulled his phone out to look at it. He hummed, unsure, and tilted his head at the screen. 

_ Oh my god, they don’t fucking remember their own anniversary _ . Jaehyo held in a laugh, sitting back and watching as they started discussing. How many birthdays have they celebrated together? At least two, since they moved in together, so two years, and then the year before, where Jihoon had taken Taeil to Japan, but wasn’t there a year before that too? Where he had been away on business during Taeil’s birthday? 

“Like five years or something,” Taeil finally decided, waving a hand dismissively. “We don’t really keep track of it.”

Finally, a snort broke through and Jaehyo shook his head, a hand scraping through his carefully fixed hair. “You can’t remember your anniversary, but you want me to date you too? That’s just another anniversary to forget.”

Jihoon reached across the table, eyes soft and sincere when he caught Jaehyo’s hand in both of his. “I promise I won’t forget. It was different with Taeil, because it wasn’t like dating at first.”

“But it would be with you,” Taeil said firmly. 

He turned a skeptic look on the pair of them, still unsure, but he didn’t take his hand away from Jihoon, even as he started to toy with his fingers. “Why wasn’t it like dating at first with Taeil? And why would it be with me?”

They shared a look again, Jihoon nudging Taeil lightly until he took a drink and looked too casual. “Because I met Jihoon on the website that you’re using and I didn’t want to date anyone, really, I just wanted someone to pay for my tattoos and he wanted someone to go shopping for clothes with and to cuddle at night.”

Before he could go on, Jaehyo held up a hand, unintentionally taking his from Jihoon and earning a frown that he ignored. “I’m sorry - you guys met this same way?”

Jihoon nodded sheepishly, still looking a little hurt as he tucked his hands back into his own lap. “Years ago. Now, our friend wanted to try it, so we all signed up again, but Taeil’s not… on that side of things anymore. We were going to flip it the other way, but we decided to just both sign on as gold members.”

“Then why would it be different for me than it was for him?” Jaehyo pressed, not fully comprehending what was happening. They had already done this. They didn’t need him. 

Taeil blinked, confusion on his face. “Because I like you,” he said simply. “If we’re going to do anything, we’re going to do it together, and we’ve talked about it before, dating someone else together.” He reached across the table, and this time it was an offer. Jihoon’s hand slid out again, both of them waiting to see if Jaehyo would take their hands. 

“Besides,” Jihoon said, with a small smile. “I don’t think I would be able to spend time with you without liking you anyway.”

Jaehyo hesitated a moment longer, glancing between the two of them. It was a nice thought, that someone would want to spend time with him this badly. It was a nice thought to be liked enough by two people to be invited in, and if he was being honest with himself, he liked the idea of loving and being loved by two people. And it was a  _ very _ nice thought that, even if this didn’t work out, he would have a few months where his rent was taken care of and he wouldn’t have to fight tooth and nail to keep a roof over his and Yukwon’s heads. 

Finally, he put his drink down, wiped both hands on his jeans, and slid his hands into the other’s. Jihoon’s was huge, engulfed his entirely even though he was taller. When he gripped it, it was almost too tight, but excited rather than demanding, grounding more than possessive. Taeil’s hand was tiny, settling in Jaehyo’s easily, but he held on just as fiercely, as though Jaehyo might change his mind and jerk away. He didn’t think he’d be able to, if he tried.

***

The room was thinning out, over half empty by the time anyone came to interrupt them. Yukwon pulled his eyes away from the man in front of him to glance up at them and noted immediately that the taller of them had an arm secured around his companion’s waist. 

“Having fun?” the smaller of the two asked, and his voice was a little sly, his smirk a little knowing, for someone who was being held onto like a prize that might run off. Yukwon didn’t miss the little silver border around his nametag, or the gold one on the other. 

Minhyuk’s face flushed quickly and he sat up. Yukwon immediately missed how close he had been leaning, sort of wanted him back in his space, but the next moment, he was stumbling over his words and looking around the room. “Uh. Yes. What- Where did everyone go?” 

“Left, mostly. People paired off and bailed or had work in the morning,” the taller man explained. His gaze turned to Yukwon then, a smile turning his lips and making him look soft despite the heavy liner on his eyes and the tattoos peeking out from under his jacket. “Hi, I’m Jiho, this is Kyung. What’s your name?”

Glancing at Minhyuk, then back at the pair of them, he answered, “Uh. Yukwon. Sorry, we were just… talking.”

“For like three hours,” Kyung informed them. “We know. It’s almost eleven. Hello, Yukwon. It’s nice to meet you.”

At his hesitance, Minhyuk explained, “We all work together. Kyung and Jiho are CFO and CEO to the record label.” 

Yukwon’s brows rose in realization. These were his coworkers. Both of them, though? His eyes flicked to the nametags, to Jiho’s arm locked around Kyung’s waist. “Did you come to-?”

Kyung shook his head, reaching out to ruffle Minhyuk’s hair and absolutely destroy whatever semblance of order it had before. “Nah. Minhyukkie just needed some backup is all. Looks like he did just fine on his own, though.”

Yukwon felt his face flush lightly and was comforted to see it on Minhyuk’s face as well, although he was still trying to get his hair to cooperate again. 

“Phone number?” Jiho supplied, trying to urge him onward. 

“Right, yes,” Minhyuk nodded quickly, pulling his phone out. “Is that okay? Do you mind? I mean can I have your phone number? To call you.”

He tried to fight the amused smile pulling at his own lips, but it was a losing battle. “I would hope so,” he said as he took the phone. As he tapped out his number, he continued. “I actually do need to head out, though. I didn’t realize how late it was, and the busses will stop running soon.-”

“Can I get you a ride?” Minhyuk offered quickly. “I’m sure we can call a car really quickly.”

Yukwon threw his hands up, shaking his head quickly. “No, no, don’t worry about it. I still have to find my friend anyway.” He turned to look around again before tugging his own phone out. Five texts from Jaehyo and one from a restricted number that only contained a phone number and a smiley face. He assumed that was Minhyuk and ignored it for now. Jaehyo’s however, couldn’t really wait. 

_ Leaving with some friends(?) Have a good night and be safe xoxo _ __  
_ Dimples is cute. I approve. _ __  
_ Solved the rent problem?? I guess???? Also might be dating two people more on this later _ __  
_ Are you coming home tonight? _ _  
_ __ If you don’t answer this text in the next 10 minutes I’m coming down there to make sure you’re still alive and if you are I will be VERY embarrassing. 

The last one was from thirteen minutes ago, the typing icon appearing as soon as Yukwon opened his phone. 

_ I see you reading this _ __  
_ If this is someone besides Yukwon you’re fucking dead _ __  
_ Also if this is Yukwon you’re fucking dead _ _  
_ __ Answer me you piece of shit :(

_ Sorry sorry Dimples is really cute and sweet _ _  
_ _ You’re home? _

“Uh,” he started, looking up at the three men still waiting patiently, although the whole group was now on their phone and Minhyuk was blushing brilliantly while Kyung smirked at his. “So my roommate is freaking out a little. I… might need to catch that ride with you.” His eyes snapped back to his phone as it went off a few more times in quick succession, but he ignored it in favor of settling with them on a ride. 

“I can call a car,” Minhyuk said quickly, nodding and standing up. (For a moment, Yukwon’s brain halted as he was reminded what his thighs looked like in those pants. He shook himself free of that as quickly as he could, but not quickly enough to avoid the glint in Kyung’s eye.)

“Thank you,” he nodded, glancing back at his phone to see where Jaehyo was. 

_ I fucking _ __  
_ I already called my stupid _ __  
_ whoever tey are i already called these guys back  _ __  
_ ffs  _ _  
_ __ NOW they dont want to LEAVE until youre HOME in case i call them back again skdjfkadsgd

“I should hurry home,” he mumbled, rubbing at his brow. “My roommate is worried sick and when he gets worried, he gets really, really annoying.”

Minhyuk nodded, already calling a car up on his app while Jiho and Kyung led the way out. “Do you want to ride by yourself or is it okay if I come with you? I’d… like to just spend a little more time with you, if that’s okay.”

The fluttering that had been in and out of Yukwon’s chest for the majority of the night returned with a vengeance at that and he looked away a little, catching Kyung turning back with a sly smirk. “Yeah, I… I think that would be okay,” he agreed softly. 

The bright smile he was rewarded with from Minhyuk sent the fluttering into overdrive all over again. 

They parted ways at the curb, Jiho and Kyung getting into one car and Minhyuk climbing into the back of another with Yukwon. “Did you have to travel far?” he asked once the car was moving. 

Yukwon shrugged. “Not really. I mean, it’s kind of annoying on the bus, but Jaehyo and I were going to share a ride back. That obviously didn’t work out.”

A guilty laugh bubbled up and Minhyuk rubbed at the back of his neck. “Sorry to have kept you out so long. It wasn’t the intention.”

“I know,” he assure him, reaching out and catching his hand. He smiled softly at him in the darkness of the car, the lights outside not really enough to bring anything into full focus, but he could see Minhyuk so he knew Minhyuk could see him. “Jaehyo left first anyway. And I had fun. I’m glad I got to meet you.”

“Would you like to meet me again?” he asked, then sighed and backtracked a little. “Not- I mean, see me again. Can I see you again? Like a date. Or not a date, I know this stuff isn’t necessarily for dating, but I’d like to-”

“A date,” Yukwon interrupted, squeezing his hand gently. “A date sounds nice.”

Minhyuk relaxed a little and Yukwon regretted the shitty lighting in the car because he couldn’t really make out the shadows of the dimples on his cheeks and he missed them maybe, just a little. 

***

Jaehyo had tried to send Taeil and Jihoon home again after he heard back from his roommate, but once they were back, Taeil didn’t really want to leave again. Just in case. 

“Well you can’t come inside,” Jaehyo said bluntly. “We didn’t clean up for guests, so you might as well just-” He made a shooing motion with his free hand, the other laced with Taeil’s. Both his hands had been occupied before, but when he struggled away from them, Jihoon had let go like a reasonable human and Taeil had held on tighter. It didn’t matter in the end anyway, because Jihoon had left a hand against Jaehyo’s back gently until he had given a resigned sigh. 

“That’s fine,” Jihoon assured him. He looked around, then gestured to the stoop outside of the building. “We can all sit there.”

“You’ll ruin your clothes,” Jaehyo whined, although he allowed himself to be led over to the stoop anyway. “Jihoon, you still look all fancy.”

“I don’t look fancy?” Taeil mocked, a hand pressed to his chest. Jaehyo rolled his eyes and he grinned. “Trust me, his clothes can take it. They’ve been through worse.”

The pair of them managed to usher Jaehyo down onto the steps and press in on both sides of him, Taeil wrapping an arm under Jaehyo’s to hold onto his hand in his lap and Jihoon with an arm behind him to keep him up. 

“You really don’t have to stay,” he insisted again, but his voice was softer this time, eyes trained on the street anxiously. “He said he would be home soon.”

“We’ll go when he gets here,” Jihoon replied. “Besides, I kind of like being here with you.”

Taeil watched Jaehyo’s eyes tear away from the street and over to him, then refocus on the direction the roommate would drive up from. He tensed as a car came, but deflated when it passed. 

“Hey,” Taeil said sharply, giving his hand a shake and demanding Jaehyo’s attention. When is the next Giants game? Is it baseball season now?”

He blinked, his eyes drifting in thought. “Well, yeah. The next game is, um, two weeks? But it’s in Busan, and tickets are kind of expensive.”

“Do you want to go?” Jihoon asked, picking up instantly. Or, more likely, just following naturally without thinking about it. He had always been kinder than he was smart, and it was one of the ways he’d endeared himself to Taeil. 

A frown pulled at Jaehyo’s face, tugging his pretty lips down, and Taeil sort of wanted to kiss it away. “Are you- You just met me, you don’t have to-”

“We know we don’t have to,” Taeil interjected. “Jaehyo, it’s really sweet that you want to refuse generosity, but what were you even there for if you’re going to argue against every little thing?”

He squirmed at that, but didn’t pull away from where he was sandwiched between the pair of them. “It wasn’t really my idea. I didn’t think I’d actually want to let anyone do that, so I didn’t really think this far ahead.”

Which, to Taeil, sounded like he must actually really like the two of them, if he had gone into the mixer with no intention of finding someone. He hoped that was the case, at least.

“Well,”Jihoon started again. Taeil shifted as his hand slid around Jaehyo’s waist between them and pulled him closer, which prompted him to press in as well until Jaehyo was practically in both of their laps. “We want to do that. We want to take care of you. We want to take you to the baseball game. Okay?”

Jaehyo squirmed again, but then finally nodded. He all but flinched away when Jihoon pressed a kiss to his cheek, but a second later, he settled a little closer to him and reached with his other hand to hold Jihoon’s where it rested on his waist. 

It was quiet for a moment, all three of them unwilling to break the fragile peace they’d managed to conjure. It would break soon, because they couldn’t stay like this forever, but even Jihoon stayed silent to preserve it a little longer. Eventually, though, another car came around the corner and Jaehyo tensed up. When it pulled to a stop at the curb, he threw both of them off and practically ran to the curb. Taeil caught up just in time to yank him back so that when the door popped open it didn’t hit him right in the face. 

“Yukwon!” he shouted, smacking him the moment he was out of the car. “You fucking asshole!”

“Minhyuk!” Jihoon boomed, although this call was much more jovial. 

Taeil peered around Jaehyo, who was now bickering with his roommate, to see Minhyuk in the car looking stunned. “Oh. Uh. Hi, guys. Are you…?

Taeil shuffled the roommates out of the way and leaned against the side of the car to talk to him, Jihoon at his back. “We’re going to spoil Jaehyo until he loves us. You?”

Minhyuk nodded slowly, flicking a glance at the man who was now being shaken back and forth by the shoulders. “The same, I think. For Yukwon. If I can.”

He nodded, looking toward the pair of them again and then back at Minhyuk. “Alright, well, any time you feel like getting out of the car and saying goodbye to him…” 

He jolted, drawing back and nodding. “Right. Yeah. Obviously.” 

Taeil rolled his eyes, nudging Jihoon until he headed over to the pair of them and got between them carefully, smiling widely at them both. Taeil wrapped his arms around Jaehyo’s middle and pulled him away, standing on his toes to look over his shoulder. They were probably being too familiar too fast, but Jaehyo had yet to pull away from their touches if it didn’t involve a kiss and that was enough for Taeil to feel like it might be okay. 

“This is your roommate?” Minhyuk asked, offering a small smile as he came to Yukwon’s side. He looked down at their hands, startled when Yukwon reached out to take it, and Taeil breathed a sigh of relief. Jihoon could take someone being standoffish and snuggle them into submission. Taeil liked fighting for his affection, and he was more than willing to bully someone into loving him back if he thought he had a chance. Minhyuk was too much a romantic for that. He needed someone who would love him as much as he loved, or at least pretend to. 

“Yeah,” he said simply. “This is Jaehyo. Jaehyo, this is Minhyuk.”

Jaehyo looked irritable, but tipped his head in greeting. “Thank you for getting him home. It’s nice to meet you. Um, guys this is Yukwon, my roommate. Yukwon this is…” He paused, an unsure look crossing his face and Taeil sort of wanted to laugh, because it sounded like he forgot their names. He was confident, however, that he had just remembered he didn’t know how to introduce them. When Yukwon cleared his throat, he shook his head and refocused. “Um, Taeil and Jihoon. This is Taeil and Jihoon.”

“ _ Anyway _ ,” Yukwon continued, “You three should all go home. Jaehyo has work in the morning.”

Taeil and Jihoon turned to him, frowning. “How early in the morning?” Jihoon asked, looking at his watch. Midnight was starting to loom closer, at which point it would roll over into tomorrow. 

“Uh.” He cast a guilty look at that pair of them and started to extract himself from Taeil’s arms, pushing him away gently. “I actually need to get there for the breakfast run at around seven, and then I’m at the cafe in the evening, so I should probably get to bed.”

A frown tugged at Taeil’s lips and he wondered already how soon he was allowed to ask if they could subsidize enough for him to quit one of those. When Jihoon looked like he was going to ask already, he laid a hand on his arm. “Go get some sleep, then,” he said firmly, and leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek. He let out a sigh, almost resigned, and screwed his face up when Jihoon kissed the other. “Call us tomorrow, when you’re off work, okay? We’ve got to ask you about the game.”

“Okay,” he said, looking unsure for a few moments. He must have decided against whatever he was thinking, though, because he turned to Yukwon instead and tugged at his sleeve to draw him out of the little world he was in with Minhyuk. “C’mon, Kwonnie.”

“Good night,” Yukwon said softly, still pressed close to Minhyuk, right up in his space. The man was flushing brightly, bringing a slow grin to Taeil’s cheeks, a smile to Jihoon’s face, and making Jaehyo roll his eyes. Yukwon leaned in slowly and pulled Minhyuk into a kiss that made Taeil only a little jealous that his interest had fallen so quickly to someone who barely let him kiss his cheek. (For now, anyway.)

The kiss turned a little more heated, Minhyuk looking like he was going to die at any moment, his hands wrapping around Yukwon’s waist, and Yukwon’s arms winding around his shoulders, holding him close. Jaehyo sighed again, grabbing Jihoon’s watch and timing out five more seconds before he grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him away. “Alright! Good night!”

“Night, Minhyuk,” Yukwon called, beaming at him. 

When they were inside, Taeil turned back to see Minhyuk still looking stricken and staring at the door while Jihoon patted him on the shoulder and looked concerned and amused. “You gonna make it?” he asked, laughing softly. 

Taeil snorted, shaking his head and leading the way back to the still-idling car at the curb. “So now you get to argue about who gets to pay their rent, right?” he asked, shooting a look at Minhyuk. “Since that was the purpose of them coming, right?”

“No,” Jihoon said unexpectedly. “I already decided I’m going to do it.”

“What?” Minhyuk frowned, climbing into the front seat and telling the driver where they were going quickly. “No, we can both do half, right? I don’t want him to think I’m useless.”

“He already likes you,” Jihoon argued. “We need the  _ points _ .”

“It’s not a game, Jihoon,” Minhyuk sighed. 

Taeil rolled his eyes. “Just because it isn’t a game doesn’t mean we can’t win at it.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me on twitter! @6uglyguysandjae


	3. Sweat Slick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minhyuk thinks he's finally manning up, but it's just as much that Yukwon is finished waiting on him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE IT GOES LADS IT B E G I N S 
> 
> Thanks so much to beargrove for betaing, and also for yelling at me to keep going. A true hero tbh

“I need all three of you to focus,” Kyung snapped, slamming a hand on the table. 

Jihoon and Jiho both jumped, the former dropping his phone on the table and quickly shoving his hands in his lap with a low “Sorry, hyung.” Minhyuk glanced up and sighed, tapped out another text, and then put his phone away. Taeil didn’t flinch in the least, barely moved, but did mumble, “I am plenty focused.”

Kyung sighed heavily again, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s been a week. I’m about to hold a fucking intervention.”

“For what?” Minhyuk asked, frowning. “We haven’t even done anything. I haven’t, anyway. We’ve just been texting.”

“Jaehyo is always at work,” Jihoon mumbled, frowning and looking a little downtrodden about it. 

Taeil finally looked up from his phone at him, lips tightening before he typed faster and then tucked the phone away to lean into his side. 

“That’s what we’re having the intervention about,” Kyung groaned. “God, you’re all idiots. Jihoon, you’ve  _ done this _ before, what are you even doing?”

Jiho reached out, putting an arm in front of Kyung to interrupt him and draw the other’s attention. “What he means is that you’re all acting like you have to treat them like… like…”

“Baby deer!” Kyung interjected.

Jiho sighed, casting him a look. “Yeah. Like baby deer. They’re not baby anythings. Stop asking for scraps and offer them something gourmet.”

Minhyuk puffed out a heavy breath, dragged a hand through his hair again. Before he could say anything, Kyung hit the table again to demand his attention. “Don’t you fucking start. Yukwon is so into you it's almost not funny. Seriously, Minhyuk, stop taking him for coffee and trying to be casual. You met him in a room full of people who would gladly have given him diamonds and fucked him ten times by now.  _ What are you doing? _ ”

“I don’t know!” he huffed finally. “I don’t know. This whole idea was you guys, and now I’m supposed to just know what to do, and what’s too far, and what isn’t, and I don’t!”

“It’s all on his profile,” Jihoon said carefully. “It should be, anyway. If you look on the site? Things he’s ready to jump into and things you can do?”

Minhyuk frowned, tugging his phone out again. He had spent a lot of time looking at Yukwon’s profile, but mostly at the About Me section and the photos. (a lot at the photos.) Jihoon leaned over, poking gently at his phone and opening another little nondescript tab. 

“They don’t let you write your own limits and stuff,” Taeil explained. “So that people don’t say dangerous shit like ‘anything is okay’ because that’s serial killer bait. You have to answer all these questions. I mean, you guys had to answer some, but the silver member side has a lot more.”

On the screen now was a neat little bulleted list, preset messages that were safe and simple. 

_ -I am open to being seen in public together _ __   
_ -I am open to attending events _ __   
_ -I am open to physical affection _ __   
_ -I am open to kissing _ __   
_ -I am open to bedroom play _ __   
_ -I am open to either position, but I prefer to bottom _ __   
_ -I am open to discussion of new things in the bedroom _ __   
_ -I am open to a change in work schedule _ __   
_ -I am not open to quitting my job _ __   
_ -I am not open to moving _ __   
_ -I am open to travel _ __   
_ -I have a passport _ __   
_ -I am open to gifts _ _   
_ __ -I am open to receiving an allowance

“Why didn’t any of you help me learn to navigate this site,” Minhyuk groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “You both knew how to find this out and you didn’t tell me.”

“There was a tutorial,” Jiho said awkwardly, with the tone that meant he was deciding if he was going to laugh at him or not. He didn’t look up at the others, because if Jiho was about to laugh, Taeil and Kyung were barely holding in snickering. “And instructions. When we signed up.”

A snort broke free and he sighed again, heavily, and reached around Jihoon to punch Taeil in the shoulder. “Fuck off. If you’re such an expert at this, how come you aren’t making any progress with Jaehyo either?”

Jihoon made kind of a pained noise at that and Taeil sighed, face dropping into a pout. He tapped at his phone for a moment, then shoved it in Minhyuk’s face. 

_ -I am not open to being seen in public together _ __   
_ -I am not open to attending events _ __   
_ -I am not open to physical affection _ __   
_ -I am not open to kissing _ __   
_ -I am not open to bedroom play _ __   
_ -I am open to either position _ __   
_ -I am not open to discussion of new things in the bedroom _ __   
_ -I am not open to a change in work schedule _ __   
_ -I am not open to quitting my job _ __   
_ -I am not open to moving _ __   
_ -I am not open to travel _ __   
_ -I have a passport _ __   
_ -I am open to gifts _ _   
_ __ -I am open to receiving an allowance

“He’s making it impossible,” Taeil huffed. “We can’t go off of any of this information, because we already know he’s actually fine with physical affection, and he said he would go with us to the Giants game, so that’s two lies right here.”

“He marked no on everything,” Minhyuk frowned. taking the phone and passing it to Jiho’s open hand. 

“Why did he even bother?” Kyung asked, snorting. “He literally only marked yes to gifts and allowance.”

“Which he won’t take!’ Jihoon whined, frowning again and dropping his head to the table. “I tried to give him money and he wouldn’t take it, I asked if we could take him shopping and he said he was busy.”

Taeil took the phone back and frowned at it for a moment before he tucked it away. “I’d think he changed his mind, but he still texts us all the time and answers the facetimes and sends pictures. I’m not sure what he wants us to do.”

Kyung took a deep breath, laid his hands flat on the table. Silence fell over the five of them as he took a few moments to think. This was, usually, either a very good sign or a very bad sign, because it meant that he was putting an idea together. “Alright. Well. Minhyuk’s is easy. Date. A real date, a nice one, and then take him home with you. I’m not going to tell you to fuck him, because I don’t think I’ll have to. He’ll take care of that himself.”

Minhyuk choked, aiming a kick at him under the table and missing, hissing when he hit the table leg instead. He earned a smug look for his trouble and it made him want to push Kyung out of his chair. 

He turned to Taeil and Jihoon then and glanced at Jiho, a silent question of  _ Any ideas? _

“If I were you,” Jiho started carefully. “I’d probably stop asking and start telling. Maybe he’ll hate it, but you can’t really move backwards from here, right? Maybe just show up when he gets off work and whisk him away. Don’t ask if he has time, just show up and make him make time. Besides, it’s not like he  _ needs _ to work this much right now.”

“He won’t tell us when he’s off,” Jihoon mumbled.

“You know his roommate,” Kyung interrupted, eyes wide like he was in the middle of something brilliant. “Get Yukwon in on it. Ask him when he gets off work, where he works, and pick him up there.”

When Kyung looked to him, Minhyuk nodded quickly. “I can ask Yukwon. He said the other day that he was worried about him. He’d be happy to help make him rest, I think.”

“Settled,” Jiho said firmly, slapping a hand on the table as though it were a gavel, ending the discussion effectively. “Now can we adjourn this meeting? Because this is a dinner table and if I’m going to be sitting here, I need to be eating.”

***

[3:10pm]  _ two things _

[3:11pm]  _?? _

[3:11pm]  _ first, busy fridya night?  _ _   
_ [3:11pm]  _ we could go dancing _

[3:12pm]  _ friday is bad :/ _ _   
_ [3:12pm]  _ i work 10-7 _

[3:13pm]  _ call out? _   
[3:14pm]  _ i want to see you _

[3:17pm]  _ wow i cant believe im going to get food poisoning friday _ _   
_ [3:17pm]  _ im like a fortune teller with how i know that ahead of time suddenly _

[3:18pm]  _ lol cute _ _   
_ [3:19pm]  _ okay other thing _

[3:20pm]  _ okay? _   
[3:22pm]  _ minhyuk wtf _

[3:24pm]  _ sorry had to double check some things _   
[3:24pm]  _ jaeyho is blowing off taeil and jihoon _

[3:25pm]  _ i know ive been trying to get him to stop being such an asshole _   
[3:25pm]  _ you see how well its going _   
[3:26pm]  _ they didnt change their minds did they _   
[3:26pm]  _ i know hes weird about stuff but he really does like them _   
[3:26pm]  _ omg please tell me they arent dumping him already _   
[3:26pm]  _ ill kill him and also them _

[3:27pm]  _ stopstop _ _   
_ [3:27pm]  _ they arent _

[3:27pm]  _ good _

[3:28pm]  _ but we need jaehyos work schedule _   
[3:28pm]  _ theyre going to kidnap him _   
[3:28pm]  _ in like a nonthreatening way _

[3:29pm]  _ oh okay _ _   
_ [3:31pm] IMG_249

[3:31pm]  _ wow he works a lot _

[3:33pm] IMG_250

[3:33pm]  _ please tell me this is for two different spans of time _

[3:34pm]  _ he has two jobs _   
[3:34pm]  _ if they catch him after the diner shift in the morning and before the cafe in the evening, i can call in for him _ _   
_ [3:35pm]  _ bobby is chill and they owe him anyway. he covers for basically everyone _

[3:35pm]  _ do you work like this too? _

[3:36pm]  _ sometimes _   
[3:37pm]  _ one of my jobs i get to make my own schedule tho _

[3:38pm]  _ how many do you have? _

[3:38pm]  _ two. jaehyo sort of has a third one at night but its :/ _ _   
_ [3:39pm]  _ i gg. work calls xoxo see u friday <3 _

[3:40pm]  _ see you friday _   
[3:40pm]  _ <3 _

***

It was Wednesday when Minhyuk messaged Yukwon and passed the schedules along to Taeil and Jihoon. They huffed and puffed and thanked him before ignoring the rest of them for several hours, deciding what day would be best to show up “coincidentally.” It would have to wait for the following week, though, because the dates didn’t start until the next week. (To give them more time, Yukwon had said, although he had offered to get them the rest of this week’s schedule too, if they thought they needed it. Minhyuk gave him a firm no, which was a gift to Jaehyo more than anything.)

Friday came along without interruption. Minhyuk knew already what they were going to do and while nerves were plaguing him, he started feeling better by Friday evening. Dancing was something he liked, something he was good at, and it while this wasn’t so much  _ dancing _ as it was  _ clubbing _ , he still liked it. Despite himself, he really hoped that Yukwon didn’t want to get drunk. He would happily pay for his drinks, but then he’d have to take care of him in a completely different way to what he wanted. Hopefully, he would be enticed enough by what he was wearing, even if it was pretty simple. 

A black shirt that hugged in all the right places, tucked in at the front behind his belt, tight enough skinny jeans to showcase his ass and thighs, but not tight enough to make it look like he was trying. Sneakers that were nondescript, but clean in a way that spoke of either newness or care. Lip tint just dark enough to make his mouth seem kiss-bitten. Just enough eyeliner to make his eyes look sharp enough to cut. 

Again, he didn’t take his car. He called one to his place once he was ready and took that to Yukwon’s. The drive was actually a lot further than he had realized initially, because Minhyuk lived in a part of the city where you would need six or seven figures to get a place, and Yukwon was scraping by in what could generously be called a decent neighborhood. He tried not to fiddle with things on the way there, but it was impossible to keep his hands still. He was full of energy, both nervous and anticipating. 

When they got close, he shot him a text, leg bouncing impatiently. Thank god he driver didn’t want to talk or he would have looked like he didn’t have a brain at all. 

It made matters  _ worse _ when they stopped, though, because Yukwon was already standing outside, leaning against the building and checking his phone and he looked… 

His shirt was simple, like Minhyuk’s, but white and stretched at the collar enough to show his clavicle and almost sheer enough to show the shape of his body underneath. His jeans were tight in  _ all _ the right ways, mouth watering, and with rips that showed just enough skin. They would have to peel them off at the end of the night and Minhyuk was very much looking forward to doing that. He looked up and smiled and his make up was sharper than Minhyuk’s own, more purposeful, with lips tinted similarly, but darker, and thick black liner. The thing that really turned Minhyuk’s world, though, was the  _ collar _ attached to his neck. It was thick, but he had enough throat bared to make it work, hung snugly enough to look sensual, but loosely enough that he would be able to move. He couldn’t  _ not  _ think about pulling him by that collar, pressing into his space, kissing him until he whined-

Minhyuk broke out of this train of thought as the door popped open and Yukwon smiled down at him, looking absolutely angelic and still downright sinful. He was close enough now that he could pick out little details, the touch of eyeshadow, the little silver buckle on the collar, the collarbones peeking out of the stretched shirt and just waiting to be marked up. 

For several long moments, they stayed there, stared at each other, before Yukwon finally cleared his throat and shooed Minhyuk over to get into the car. Once he did, though, he closed the distance Minhyuk had created, sitting close to him and taking his hand, thighs pressed close together. He smelled sweet, light, like vanilla and honey, and Minhyuk wanted to press his face into his neck and  _ breathe _ . 

“Where are we going?” Yukwon asked, smiling brightly. 

Minhyuk had to take a moment to make sure he wasn’t going to choke or his voice wouldn’t break before he looked toward the driver again and told him the club they were heading for. It wasn’t swanky, necessarily, but they didn’t let in every person every night and the drinks were overpriced. Minhyuk liked it because they played music he actually liked and they had a reputation as a safe place to drink and have fun. And he didn’t have to wait in the line. 

While they drove, Yukwon asked softly about his week, as though they hadn’t been texting nonstop since they’d last seen each other. As though they hadn’t been to coffee three times so far this week. Minhyuk tried to focus, made one joke about how he was  _ so _ sorry about his sudden illness, but mostly he just stared at Yukwon’s lips or eyes or collarbones and tried not to think about wrecking him. (He mostly failed.)

When they were dropped off at the bar, Yukwon’s eyes grew wide at the size of the line out the door, and the dressed up people waiting and trying to get in. “Are we even going to make it in?” he asked softly, standing on his toes to see the end.

A chuckle broke from Minhyuk’s lips and he wrapped an arm around Yukwon’s waist. “Never had a problem with it before.” 

They were already by the door rather than the end of the line and Minhyuk tugged his companion toward the man at the front, tall and serious and pointedly not looking at the girls in front of him trying to coo and flirt their way into the club. Minhyuk gave him a smile and a little wave and received a smile in return, one that softened his face and made a dimple appear on his cheek. “Jooheon,” he greeted, tipping his head in greeting. 

He lifted the rope behind him to usher them both in. He didn’t bother to check their IDs, turning to sweep his eyes over the newcomer to his club as he shifted back. “Hey, Minhyuk. Who’s your friend?”

“This is Yukwon,” he replied, casting a glance to the side to find the man looking around with stars in his eyes, like he was astounded by all of this. Those landed on Minhyuk, though, and he looked astounded by  _ him _ , impressed by  _ him _ and he felt warm. “He’ll be a regular face soon.”

Jooheon laughed, clipping the rope again once they’d passed. “I look forward to seeing him, then.” He reached back, tugged the door open to let them in.

Minhyuk paused before they went through. “Anyone in there I should know about beforehand?”

He shrugged lightly, shaking his head. “No one to worry about. If Kyung shows up to crash your date, I’ll shoot you a text, though.”

He nodded, heading inside to the lights and noise as though he would hear a phone in all of this, as though he could focus on a phone when Yukwon was on his arm anyway. 

“You know so many people here,” Yukwon said, barely loud enough for Minhyuk to catch it above the thrum of music. 

He nodded again, leading him toward the bar and waving to the man there. “Hey, Kihyun,” he called out, leaning close and holding Yukwon against his side. He slipped his card out of his pocket, let him slide it to open a tab, then slipped it back into his pocket. ‘’This is Yukwon. He’ll be on my tab. Keep it open tonight. You want anything?”

Yukwon didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything now, looking around with wide eyes, leaning around people to try and get a look at how big the place was. With another laugh, Minhyuk ordered a beer for each of them and pressed one into Yukwon’s hands when Kihyun slid them across the counter. 

Yukwon shook himself free at the cool touch and turned back to him. “Sorry. Thanks. This place is…  _ swanky _ .”

Minhyuk nodded, sipping at his drink and guiding him toward a table, tall enough that they didn’t need to use chairs. Useful, since they’d already been commandeered. Also useful because the music started to move through both of them before they were finished with their first drink, like neither of them could stop themselves from moving. 

Minhyuk was aware that Yukwon was a dancer, they’d talked about it briefly, and it was the reason they were at a club now. That didn’t exactly prepare him for the way Yukwon’s body moved, to the way he rolled his body or how his face was kept just as expressive as his hips. 

A few songs dancing at the table ended with Minhyuk chugging the last of his drink and pushing Yukwon away from it. He’d abandoned his drink as soon as the music turned to something he liked enough anyway. His hands tugged and pulled at Yukwon’s waist and hips until they were in the middle of the floor, surrounded by people. 

Another thing Minhyuk liked about this club, part of the benefit of the exclusivity, was that there was never so many people on the dance floor that you couldn’t move, there was never this clog of people pressed together in a sweaty heap. It was a gathering of drunk people moving in time, not a writhing mass of sweaty, demanding, cloying bodies. You didn’t get pressed up against people you didn’t want, there was no ability for someone to grind on you and pretend it was because they were pushed against you on accident. 

Therefore, it was no accident when Yukwon turned his back to him and pressed against his front. It was not a mistake the way they were connected in a long line from shoulder to knee, hips flush. There was no pretending, there was no excuse, and there was no reason to pretend there was. One hand pressed against Yukwon’s stomach, holding him close and fighting the urge to push up under the ridiculous white shirt, only getting sheerer with sweat now. His face was tucked down against Yukwon’s neck, breath hot and heavy and hard. There was no way Yukwon couldn’t  _ feel _ exactly what this was doing to him, no way to act like he wasn’t getting hard in the tight pants he’d foolishly decided to wear. 

Yukwon, for his part, was either leading Minhyuk down this path or following him and it was hard to tell who was guiding whom now. He reached back, tangled a hand in Minhyuk’s hair to hold him against him. There was no way he didn’t know Minhyuk was getting hard in the middle of this club because he was grinding back on him, slotting their hips together and making sure that Minhyuk could feel every time he curved his body, every time he bumped his ass back against him. His other hand was gripping his thigh, squeezing the meat of it like he just needed a good grip on  _ something, _ although Minhyuk didn’t know what he needed it for. 

He came here all the time. He danced here all the time. He danced with people, and it got dirty sometimes, because dancing did that, but Minhyuk had not danced with someone like  _ this _ . He didn’t even have more than a beer in his system and he felt dizzy and drunk.

Time turned weird, odd, and he didn’t know how long they had been here, how long they had been out in the middle of the crowd or even how long since they’d arrived, since they’d had their drinks and abandoned them. Long enough that the was hard, long enough that his thighs were aching and his mouth was dry. 

Yukwon’s head turned and his hand slid down, catching Minhyuk’s jaw and guiding him in. Their lips met and it was heavy and wet. Minhyuk groaned against his lips, wrapping both arms around Yukwon’s waist and melting right there into a puddle of lust and sweat. Yukwon turned, slid both arms around his shoulders, opened his mouth and licked against Minhyuk’s lips. He didn’t hesitate to open them, licking into Yukwon’s mouth and shuddering at the way he sucked on his tongue. 

They broke apart, breathing on one another’s lips and barely pretending to dance anymore. Yukwon ended even that by rolling his hips forward, grinding them together and proving he was just as hard. “Minhyukkie,” he groaned, leaning forward to nip at his ear. “Take me home.”

One heartbeat passed and it was mostly just Minhyuk trying to get his bearings back. A second passed and he had to force himself to pull away from Yukwon’s lips suckling at his lobe. The third was when he jerked back. His hand snatched Yukwon’s and he yanked his phone out of his pants as he shoved his way through the crowd. He wished he’d brought his own car, then they wouldn’t have to wait on one. Then again, then he’d have to focus on driving, and he didn’t think he could do that right now. He’d probably end up pulling over and fucking Yukwon in the back seat and that’s not what he wanted. Not the first time with him, anyway. 

He shouldered the door open, throwing a wave toward Jooheon as he passed him and ignoring the laugh that followed them out. 

Thank god for the fleet of cars that lingered outside of clubs like this one, waiting to take home people too drunk to drive, waiting for couples just like this one, because the car was pulling up just after they made it to the curb. Lucky, because Minhyuk was trying very hard not to turn and kiss Yukwon breathless, grounding himself by holding onto his hand and trying to pretend there wasn’t a very obviously tent in the front of his regrettably tight pants. 

He meant to be gentle, but he was getting impatient already and he jerked the door to the car open, pushed Yukwon in a little more insistently than he intended, then pulled him back to him once the door was closed. Yukwon didn’t seem to mind, given that he found his lips without prompting and sealed his over them. If the driver minded, neither of them noticed and they didn’t plan to care either way. 

One of Yukwon’s hands slid up, gripping Minhyuk’s hair tightly, the other gripping his arm as though he thought he needed to keep him close, like the way their tongues tangled together didn’t do that plenty. Like the smell of beer and vanilla and sweat didn’t have him hooked on this closeness. Like he wasn’t fighting the urge to pull him into his lap and tell the driver to get the fuck out of his own car. 

Minhyuk’s wandering hands weren’t making it any easier to keep from dragging him closer either. One of them had found the edge of Yukwon’s shirt and slid underneath it, tracing the line of his spine where sweat made his shirt stick to his body. The other wasn’t under his pants only because they were too tight for that. Instead, they groped at his ass, gripped the meat of it hard enough that he would worry it would bruise if he still had enough brain capacity to think of things like that. Now it was all just  _ yes _ and  _ more _ and  _ Yukwon _ . 

Yukwon broke free first, trying to catch his breath, and Minhyuk ducked down, followed the line of his long neck and bite, sucked, licked along the barrier of the collar. “When we get home,” he mumbled, “You’re taking off everything but this.”

“Yes,” he hissed, fingers tugging at his hair. 

“Hey, uh,” another voice broke through, loud and abrasive and awkward. 

Minhyuk froze, his lips still pressed to Yukwon’s skin.  _ Fuck, the driver _ . 

“We- We’re here, but there’s a gate code?”

He yanked back, whacking his head on the window and fumbling for his phone. A quick code had the gates opening to allow them in. 

“You have a gate to your house?” Yukwon mumbled, leaning over him. He sounded like he was a little wrecked already, only half interested in what he was saying. They were both thrumming with energy, wanting to get back to where they had been, but unwilling to break apart again when they got to the end of the driveway.

The car stopped and Minhyuk threw the door open, lurched out of it and turned to help Yukwon to his feet. A short pause had him throwing all the cash in his wallet to the driver with a quick apology. He didn’t trust himself to tip him on the app anyway. 

When he got to the front door, Yukwon was done waiting. He didn’t give him a chance to unlock it before he was sliding up behind him, pressing against his back and kissing along his neck, hands sliding up his chest. It made getting the key in the lock difficult and he didn’t make it through the door before Yukwon’s lips and tongue started pulling marks into his skin. His breath left him as the door swung open and he had to shake Yukwon off to remember the code to the alarm system. Once it stopped screeching at him, Minhyuk slammed the door closed, flipped the lock, and pushed the man against the wall again. 

Yukwon, thankfully, wasn’t upset about being brushed off. Didn’t seem that way, anyway, judging the way he melted against him and fisted both hands in the front of his shirt. His mouth opened again easily, his tongue finding Minhyuk’s and playing against it. Minhyuk allowed his hands to slide down both of the man’s sides and then back up, lifting the shirt so he could  _ touch _ and  _ feel _ . 

“Bed,” he managed to say, although he didn’t move back at all, just dipped his head down and started to bite along the strong line of his jaw. 

Yukwon let out a soft noise, rolled his hips forward when Minhyuk found something especially nice to nibble. One hand slipped up to his hair, gripping tight. “Carry me,” he said breathlessly, and it wasn’t a suggestion. 

Later, Minhyuk would wonder if it was supposed to be like this, if he was supposed to feel like Yukwon owned him rather than the other way around, but right now, he dutifully slipped his hands down again and gripped him by the thighs. Yukwon used his grip on Minhyuk’s shirt to lift himself, ruining it as he stretched it out in his fist.

He turned away from the door they were kissing against, stumbling toward the bedroom. He couldn’t really see, his face buried in Yukwon’s neck, liking along his throat, marking up his exposed collarbones. His hands moved to his ass and squeezed, bringing out a moan he could feel against his lips. They crashed into a wall as they walked, knocked over a table with something on it. Yukwon hissed at the sound of breaking objects, laughed when Minhyuk turned again and smacked into a wall. 

“Down,” he laughed, tugging at the man’s hair to pull him away from his skin. “Put me down, before we bring your house down.”

Minhyuk huffed a soft laugh, but rolled his hips forward as much as he could against him anyway, pleased with the way Yukwon gasped against him. “Not sure I could make the stairs like this anyway.”

Carefully, he let him back down to his feet, holding his hands where they were and grinding against him again in the middle of the hallway as he stole his lips again in a slow kiss. They had started feverish, demanding, but Minhyuk was a romantic at heart, always would be, and as lust started to ebb, the voice in his head chanted  _ take care of him, take care of him, take care _ . 

Finally, when Yukwon was red-lipped and breathless, he pulled away and took his hand, tugged him up the stairs. Truthfully, his house wasn’t all that big, he wasn’t that interested in advertising his wealth, but it wasn’t small either, with enough space for a few guests to stay for a while without stepping on one another’s toes. Not that he usually had guests that didn’t live nearby, honestly, and even then his friends stepped on his toes plenty whether they had room or not. 

The bedroom was where he stopped and he turned back to Yukwon with heat in his eyes. He reached out carefully, almost reverent, and slid his hands up his sides again, this time following through and liting Yukwon’s arms to take the shirt off. Just as he thought, as he knew, he was  _ beautiful _ , all warm skin and flat lines, muscled enough to define, bare and unblemished. 

“You’re fucking gorgeous,” he breathed, moving forward and skating a hand up over the planes of his stomach, up to thumb across a nipple hardened from activity. The collar still sat around his neck, ringed with marks on both sides now. 

“You’re one to talk,” he replied, shifting forward to meet Minhyuk with a kiss. His hands found the edge of his shirt, pulling it up and off, over his head and tossing it to the floor with his own. Yukwon’s eyes slid over his torso, both of them taking a few moments to drink one another in before they surged together again. 

It had lost the feverish heat of before, something slower-burning now, something that wasn’t going to be sweated out but was no less insistent. Minhyuk’s hands slipped to the other’s waist, pulling him close and relishing the feel of skin on skin. Yukwon’s hands roamed his chest, but fell quickly to his belt, pawing at what he wanted and trying to get his pants off without having to break the newly reinstated kiss. Once he got the belt open, the button and zipper undone, he slid a hand down under the fabric and palmed him roughly.

Minhyuk broke the kiss with a groan, dropping his head down to Yukwon’s shoulder for a moment. “Pants off,” he breathed, fighting with the fly on the stupid, awful, amazing ones Yukwon was still wearing. 

“Finally,” he heard him breath, before being pushed away gently. 

Yukwon must have been some kind of magical, or at the very least practiced, because while Minhyuk was pushing at his own dark jeans, shoving them down gracelessly, Yukwon was peeling his much tighter ones off with what looked like little trouble. He had to fight to focus on it and hoped he looked half as graceful as he kicked the rest of his clothes aside. 

The fever was back now when they reached for one another. Yukwon was in his arms and when they touched, there was no clothing to get in the way, just skin slick with sweat and hot mouths and harsh breaths and Minhyuk was wrapping his arms around Yukwon’s thin waist to walk him towards the bed. All that was left between the two of them was the thick collar on the man’s neck and Minhyuk though he might be developing a new kink for that anyway. 

Yukwon crashed down on the bed, Minhyuk following him down and kissing up his stomach, along his chest, pressing his lips and tongue the marks he’d left along his clavicle and neck. 

“Lube,” Yukwon breathed, as though he thought Minhyuk could forget. 

“I’ll get there,” he promised, biting down again and enjoying the way he whined now that no one was around to hide the noises from. “So fucking pretty.”

Another night, he would take him apart entirely, press him into the mattress and make him scream. As much as he wanted to do that now, he was afraid that he would end up coming at the sound of his name if Yukwon so much as breathed it, so he moved up again, slotted their mouths together and fumbled in the bedside table for lube and a condom. Yukwon’s knees were at his waist, pulling him closer and forcing their cocks to press together, grind against one another when he rolled his hips. 

“You are too good at that, baby,” he huffed, sitting back on his knees between Yukwon’s legs and pushing his knees apart. He dumped some of the liquid on his fingers, warming it and watching him on the bed, flushed red, lips swollen and bright, writhing on the sheets. One hand caught his thigh, lifted until he got his calf settled on his shoulder, and his fingers trailed down his shaft, ghosted over his balls, slipped down to tease at his rim. He squirmed, face twisting a little as he teased. 

He didn’t take long, just ensured he was wet and warm before his first finger pressed in. Yukwon’s eyes widened, head tilting back as he relaxed against him. 

“Good,” Minhyuk cooed, pressing in a little harder, a little more insistently. “So good, just relax, baby, let me take care of you.” 

This was another thing he would do later, another thing he would weaponize to take Yukwon apart another day. He looked gorgeous where he was, writhing and moaning, flushed against the dark sheets. When Minhyuk got to his second finger, brushed his prostate, Yukwon moaned, arched, and he locked that to memory. He was going to fuck him on his fingers later until he cried, until he came, over and over until it was dry and he couldn’t walk, trap him there and spoil him in this bed with affection and attention when he had ruined him. 

Right now, though, his cock was angry red and hard and demanding his attention. He tried to be sure he didn’t rush it, but as soon as Yukwon said the word  _ please _ , his resolve was shattered and he pulled away. He still had one leg up over his shoulder as he tore open the rubber and rolled it carefully on, smeared more lube over his length. He sat forward, covered him with his whole body and watched his face as he slid in. 

Yukwon’s mouth fell open, eyes wide as his breath came short. Minhyuk was probably biased, but he was so fucking  _ beautiful _ that he didn’t think he would ever be able to fuck anyone else, didn’t think he was ever going to want to again. 

He bottomed out in what felt like record time, going still as they both caught their breath. Yukwon’s hands finally moved, slid up his arms, over his biceps, spread wide on his shoulders. His hips rolled and it urged them both into movement. 

He kept slow, deep, because Minhyuk had always been a romantic at heart and he wasn’t about to give anything less than his entire heart even though it had been about a week since they met, if that. His head dropped down, sweat trickling down his spine as he rolled his body over Yukwon’s. He was bent almost in half, one leg still on Minhyuk’s shoulder, the other wrapped around his waist to give him leverage with every thrust to reply in kind. Minhyuk reached between them with one hand, leaning on an elbow to stroke Yukwon slowly with every can’t of their hips. 

Neither of them lasted long. Minhyuk came first, twitching against him and groaning long and loud, and there wasn’t time to be embarrassed about coming first when Yukwon followed with a low moan of his own, clenching around him and digging his nails into Minhyuk’s back. 

Minhyuk’s arms were shaking, his breath coming hard as he rode them through it, thrust into Yukwon and pulled at his dick until he was finished and milked dry. The mess between them was still hot, smeared on both their skin where they had rubbed against one another. He stayed there a moment longer, pulling back to look at Yukwon’s sleepy, blissed out face. 

When he blinked himself back to the real world, he focused up on Minhyuk’s face and a smile bloomed across is flushed cheeks. “Are you just going to stay there and stare at me all night?” he asked, a ghost of a laugh they were both too tired for on his lips. 

“Shut up,” Minhyuk huffed, leaning down to kiss him before he finally pulled away. They both groaned when he slid out, but he got up quickly and slipped the condom off, tied and tossed into the trash on the way to the bathroom. He didn’t bother turning on the light, snagging the hand towel from beside the sink and running warm water over it before he came back. Yukwon hadn’t moved in the least, splayed out on the bed like a painting. He smiled up at him when the cloth moved over his skin, cleaning the cum from his stomach and the lube from his legs gently. 

“Do you think you can get the blanket out from under you?” Minhyuk asked, tossing the cloth toward their discarded clothes and leaning down for another kiss. 

“Mm, if I have to,” Yukwon mumbled, letting his hands explore the man above him again. 

Minhyuk managed a laugh this time before he pulled away. “I’m going to get something clean from the closet. Get the blanket off the bed and then we’ll go to sleep, alright?”

Yukwon hummed, sliding his fingers along Minhyuk’s cheek gently before he stood and left the room. There was only one blanket in the closet, a sentimental scratchy thing, so he skipped over it to a guest room and yanked the comforter off of that instead. By the time he got back, Yukwon had managed to dump the filthy blanket to the floor and was curled up with his face pressed into a pillow. 

Minhyuk hummed softly, crawling in beside him and dragging the blanket over them both. He was pleased but not surprised when Yukwon mumbled incoherently and wrapped an arm around him, pressed close to his side and buried his face in his shoulder. 

“See you in the morning, angel,” he mumbled, pressing a kiss to his dark hair. Yukwon mumbled something back that he couldn’t catch, and Minhyuk closed his eyes to get rest they both very much deserved after that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOF that sure was a chapter. Yell at me about it on twitter!! @6uglyguysandjae


	4. Sleep To Wake Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeil and Jihoon have to have a talk with Jaehyo. It goes better than expected, but ends in a mess they should all have seen coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to beargrove, the mvp, the light of my life, the single most encouraging beta of all time. No sexy times in this chapter, but some drinking. It's Taepyo, of course there's drinking.

Yukwon woke warm and sated, but aching all over. It was, admittedly, his third time waking up since they went to sleep. The first was because he couldn’t breathe and for a moment, he panicked until he remembered the collar sitting snug around his neck and realized it had twisted in his sleep to press a little too tight. He threw it off and curled up again. The second was when a ring blared through the room, but an arm that wasn’t his reached out, slapped the phone, and then threw it across the room with an irritated mumble. He and Minhyuk curled together again after that and went back to sleep. 

This time, he actually would have to get up, because he had to pee fiercely and there was no way to get back to bed now. The sun was sneaking over the floor, streaking in through the curtains around the edges of the fabric. He really didn’t want to move, even if his bladder was complaining, and his throat was scratchy with thirst. He was comfortable and achey at the same time. Minhyuk wasn’t in bed, though, so he sat up with a groan and blinked sluggishly at the room. 

He hadn’t registered it the night before, preoccupied with what they had come here for, but it was… kind of lovely. Minimalist and modern and understated. Classy without being classical, like Minhyuk. The blanket around his waist was dark green, but he remembered distantly that there was a different one before last night. 

He crept across the hardwood floors quietly, a habit he had because his schedule was so different from Jaehyo’s, and made it to the bathroom. It wasn’t lavish either, but he already couldn’t wait to test the shower out. Spacious and wide with a seperate standing tub big enough for two people, just barely. 

He was washing his hands when Minhyuk appeared at the doorway, knocking gently on the frame with his eyes averted politely. “Morning,” he said warmly, no sign of sleep in his voice. Yukwon didn’t know what time it was, but it was probably past ten. He rarely got up before then on his days off. He was fully dressed now, looking soft and casual and comfy. “Your clothes are in the dryer now, but I can get you some of mine if you want to shower and get something to wear.”

“I’d like that,” Yukwon said, voice scratching as he moved to where Minhyuk was standing. He caught his cheek in a hand, pulling him back to look at him and meet his eyes before he pressed a kiss to his lip. “You saw me last night, Minhyukkie, you don’t have to act shy now.”

“I’m not shy,” he argued, although his cheeks were warm under Yukwon’s hands. “Just… being respectful.” Still, he leaned in again, pulling him into a kiss and sliding a hand to his back, pulling him closer despite how Yukwon was bare and Minhyuk was fully clothed. It didn’t get heated like the night before, staying warm and chaste and comfortable before he broke away. 

“You jump in the shower,” he said firmly, pushing him away a little. “I’ll grab some clothes and then we can get some food. Anything you want to do today? Anything at all.”

Laughing softly, Yukwon turned to the shower, looking curiously at the knobs and hoping he didn’t accidentally burn or freeze off all his skin. He waited until Minhyuk had turned away before experimenting, eventually figuring out which way to fuss with the knobs to get the temperature hot, then got in. 

He hoped, a little selfishly, that Minhyuk would climb in with him, but he didn’t and the shower was nice, but uneventful. He got out, dried off with a fluffy towel Minhyuk must have put out for him since he had no idea where it came from. The clothes were comfy, soft, casual like what Minhyuk was wearing, just sweatpants and a t-shirt, but they smelled like him and his cologne under the fabric softener and Yukwon relished the chance to wrap up in them. 

He padded down the stairs quietly. The rest of the house was similar to the room he’d woken up in, understated and modern, a quiet sort of classy with soft lighting that mostly streaked in through the windows. There had been at least four rooms upstairs, including the one he’d come from, and downstairs there were another three doors, the living room, the kitchen… The house was, to him, fucking  _ massive _ . What the fuck did he do with all these rooms? What could he  _ possibly _ need so much room for when he lived alone? No wonder he was looking for someone to bring in, maybe just to fill all this damn space. 

He was in the kitchen when Yukwon found him, a hip leaned on the counter and a cup of coffee in one hand, his phone in the other. He looked up, a smile on his lips as his eyes dragged over him. He had to fight the urge to blush. It’s not like he was anything revealing or special just clothes that were baggy and soft and not even his. 

“Drink some water,” he said firmly, moving to the fridge and grabbing a bottle, but placed it on the counter when he got close enough. His hands found Yukwon’s waist once they were empty, one cold and one warm as they circled it. “You look cute in the mornings.”

“I look cute all the time,” he shot back, grinning despite himself and stealing a short kiss. He picked the water up anyway and took a drink as Minhyuk’s hand wandered up to his neck, toying with one of the litany of marks he’d left behind the night before. 

“True. You think of anything you want to do today?” When Yukwon shook his head, he leaned forward, placing soft, warm kisses along his temple and hairline. “No? Shopping? Movie? Go out? Whatever you want, baby, we’ll do it.”

He’d drained half the bottle by the time he stopped to breathe, his throat feeling less scratchy already. He turned his head, catching warm lips with his cool from the water. “Kind of want to stay in. I have to work tonight.”

“You don’t  _ have _ to work tonight,” he argued immediately. “Not if you don’t want to.”

A soft laugh bubbled up and Yukwon pushed him away just a little. He resisted for only a moment, then let go and picked his coffee back up. “I’m not gonna call in two days in a row. That’s rude. I won’t take any walks today, though, how about that?”

Minhyuk thought for a moment, studying him and making a show of tapping his fingers on his mug. “Fine. I’ll take it. But you’re mine until you have to go get ready for work, okay?”

Yukwon couldn’t help the flush on his cheeks at that and he nodded. “Of course. So can we just stay in then? Curl up on the sofa and watch a drama or something?”

Minhyuk grinned, moved forward and slipped an arm around his waist. “Anything you want.”

*** 

 

  
  


Jaehyo had honestly barely seen Yukwon in four days. Part of that was because of Minhyuk, and he knows that, but it’s not all that. He also doesn’t begrudge him the time they want to spend together. Minhyuk is nice, seems like a good guy. Already, Yukwon looked happier, sounds happier when they text. He can’t blame Minhyuk for wanting Yukwon all to himself either, because Yukwon is obviously great. 

Since that first night when they went “dancing,” he’s been home only twice. Once to grab clothes for work the night after, and Minhyuk had driven him there and sat in the living room of their dingy apartment while Jaehyo stared at him and ate leftovers from the restaurant. They had talked only a little, ending when Minhyuk asked if he had seen Taeil and Jihoon yet since the mixer and Jaehyo had said no, shoved so much food in his mouth that he nearly choked and died, then bolted to his room before he could ask anything else. 

The only other time Yukwon has been in the apartment since then was when he had finished work two days later, but Minhyuk was too busy to come pick him up. Jaehyo had arrived home from his morning shift to see Yukwon passed out on the couch with an overnight bag, as though Minhyuk didn’t have everything he could need already at his home. He didn’t wake him up. Yukwon needed the rest, and now he did too. 

They had been texting, obviously, and Yukwon’s was mostly pictures of various expensive things in Minhyuk’s house (suits, shoes, his car, the TV) with lots of all caps keysmashing. It helped a little. 

Jaehyo wasn’t jealous. He was happy for Yukwon. He was lonely, though. The apartment had always been cramped with the two of them there, even though they were always passing one another, but now it felt empty and hollow and quiet. He wanted his friend to come home, he wanted to force himself to stay up so he could tell him about shitty customers and hear about the misbehaving dogs he’d walked. He wanted to fight over the good parts of the leftovers he brought home with him instead of just putting half of it back to eat again when he got home from  _ another _ too-long shift. 

He didn’t realize how long four days was going to feel when it was largely alone. He didn’t realize how much it sucked to have an empty house when you didn’t know when it would stop being empty. 

Day five, he felt like he was dying. Not only did he miss Yukwon, but Taeil and Jihoon had spent the whole night texting him, blowing up his phone until he silenced it because they wouldn’t shut up about absolutely nothing. He was tired already, and rent was this week, and he knew that Jihoon and Taeil and Minhyuk had all said that they would pay it, but it had been a long time since he believed anything anyone said. Ever. Besides, if they did end up paying it, at least he would have some money left over to do what he wanted with. If not, then he was back to where he was before, which was bad but at least familiar. 

The Giants game was coming up too, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Taeil and Jihoon offering to take him. Hard to stop thinking about it when they kept offering, honestly, but there was a deep down part of him that didn’t want to take anything from them, keep them at arm’s length, because what happened when they got bored of this? He liked them, both of them, and that was weird and frightening and impossible. He didn’t trust it. 

His mind was still moving sluggishly and through too many directions, keeping his focus scattered as he rubbed one eye and tried to get an order put in without fucking it up again. He jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder. 

“Jaehyo,” Kwang Seon said evenly. “It’s not my business, but are you like… tied up with a gang or something? Is everything okay? You know you can’t borrow money from those people.”

“What?” was the articulate reply he managed. He must have heard that wrong. 

Kwang Seon frowned, looking back out over the tables. Jaehyo turned, but before he really could see anything, Kwang Seon was shoving him into the back and asking Ha Yeon to put his order in. When he tried to come out again, Kwang Seon shoved him again, pushing until he was near the back exit. “Okay, listen, Yukwon called and he got you out of your shift the next couple days, which is fine, but are you going on the run or something?”

Jaehyo blinked sluggishly, frowning at him. “What in the world is going on?” he asked, quietly proud of himself for managing to get through a real sentence. His head was pounding, though, so he wasn’t that excited about it. 

Kwang Seon looked over his shoulder again, like someone might storm the back of the diner and eavesdrop. “Some guys came in? Two guys, they look like they have money, and one of them has like, a  _ lot _ of tattoos? And the other one is really big. They came up in this…”

He kept talking, but Jaehyo tuned him out, his eyes unfocusing. Yukwon. That was the only way they could know where he worked. Dragging a hand over his face, he ducked around Kwang Seon and ignored him as he went back out to the diner. 

There, at the self-seater bar, where people came for coffee and a pastry, sat Taeil and Jihoon, looking startlingly like they were really going to shake him down for money. Jihoon was in a full suit, dark and fitted, with his hair pushed back and sunglasses on. He had looked so soft the other night when they met and now he looked…  _ different _ . It struck Jaehyo very suddenly that he actually didn’t know what Jihoon did to make money, had no clue how he got rich enough to support Taeil and himself. 

Taeil too had looked much softer the other day, now in a short sleeved shirt, massive on his small frame but allowing a view of the tattoos that crawled all the way up both arms. The jeans, timbs, and bucket hat weren’t threatening in themselves, but the flashy  _ SUPREME _ on his shirt and phone drew as much attention as the ink. 

He looked around, pursing his lips at the coworkers staring at the pair of them, a few of the customers. With a deep breath and no energy for this, he moved across the diner, behind the bar they sat at. Both of them brightened at the sight of him and it warmed him enough to bring him from pissed off to just aggravated. By the time he stopped in front of them, Jihoon was smiling brightly and Taeil was grinning, leaning on his forearms. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he hissed, leaning across as well. His voice was low, trying to keep others from hearing. Luckily, everyone had given them a pretty wide berth. “You’re making people think I owe money to a mob or something.”

“We came to pick you up!” Jihoon said, loud and boisterous and not lowering his voice at all. 

He winced, dragging a hand over his face. When he looked up, Kwang Seon looked ready to intervene and Eun Mi had her phone in her hand like she was about to call the cops. He waved them off quickly and turned back to the culprits. “You seriously look like criminals right now. You can’t just come to a diner like this in clothes that expensive. Why are you here?”

Taeil snorted, leaning forward a little more. “We came to pick you up,” he echoed, slower this time, like Jaehyo didn’t understand the first time. To be fair, he didn’t. 

He sighed heavily, glancing between them. They both still just seemed to be happy to be here, happy to see him, and here he was still trying to turn them away like an idiot. “I’m not off for another hour, and I have work this afternoon. Which I  _ really _ need a nap for, since  _ someone _ kept me up all night texting about- Oh my god.”

“You don’t have work tonight,” Taeil said when Jaehyo stopped talking, still grinning widely and now that look made sense. “And we didn’t want you to get off early and go home. We’ll wait for you to get off and then we can go shopping.”

His mouth fell open a little, stunned enough to forget himself. He was sure he looked like an idiot, but whatever look he had on his face prompted Jihoon to tilt the sunglasses up to perch on his head. “After you take a nap. We have lots of time. You have a couple of days off.”

“I don’t, though,” he said weakly.

Taeil grinned again, but Jaehyo thought he caught a glimmer of worry behind it. “You do now.”

He opened his mouth, ready to argue, but remembered that only moments ago, Kwang Seon had told him Yukwon had called. 

“You two… got Yukwon involved,” he said slowly. 

The worry made a further appearance on Taeil’s face, swept away quickly, but it took Jihoon’s over entirely and stayed there. He felt like he’d slapped the ice cream out of his hand. “Just spend a day of it with us,” Jihoon asked pleadingly as he reached over the counter to touch the other’s hand. When he didn’t yank away, he took hold more firmly. “Not even today, if you don’t want. The Giants game is the day after tomorrow, spend that with us. Please?”

“Giants game,” Jaehyo repeated. His voice sounded a little far away, his brow furrowed. He was too tired to figure out what was happening. 

Taeil reached out one small hand, pressing his palm to his cheek and jolting him back to the real world. He kept his hand there as he spoke, holding eye contact while Jihoon held onto his other hand. “You don’t have to spend all your time with us, Jaehyo, but can we at least talk? If you don’t want to have a few days off, go back to work tomorrow and we’ll leave it alone, but let us take you home today and after you get some rest, we’ll talk. Okay?”

For a few long moments, Jaehyo stared at them both and then nodded slowly. He tugged is hand away, moved away from Taeil’s touch on his cheek and cleared his throat. His face was warm, but he hoped that if he just pretended it wasn’t, no one would say anything. Smoothing out his apron, he turned away, then paused as he thought better of it. “Do you… need anything? While you’re waiting?”

“You’re not going to be our waiter,” Taeil said dryly, huffing a soft laugh and shaking his head. “Go do your job, we’ll be here. We can occupy ourselves.”

As he headed back out to the tables, it wasn’t silent but it felt that way. It felt as though the silence was deafening, like everyone was watching him, when it was pretty much only a few regulars and some of the staff. Eun Mi caught his elbow as he headed toward the line to check for pick ups. 

“Do you know those men, Jaehyo? Is everything okay?” she asked. Her brow was drawn down into a worried line as she leaned close. 

He flushed a little darker and ducked his head again. “Uh. Yeah. They’re… friends. They’re not in a gang, they’re just rich and weird.”

She studied him a moment longer. “Yukwon called and asked us to get your shifts covered for a few days. Is that something you want?”

He hesitated, then nodded again jerkily. “Yeah, I’m… I’m gonna get to go to the Giants game, I think.” 

When his eyes flicked up to look at her again, she still looked worried, but there was a small smile on her lips. “You work too much, Jaehyo. I wish I could give you paid time, but I’m glad to get your shifts covered, okay? Just… be safe. Call me if you need an excuse, okay? I’ll call you in.”

He nodded again, bowing as he thanked her a last time and then headed for the line to finish getting his food before his tables rioted. 

Thank god they hadn’t come earlier, because while he’d been able to feed off of the energy brought on by irritation and shock, that faded quickly and he was dead on his feet again in no time. He could hear Jihoon talking in his deep voice from across the room and it made it hard to focus, could hear Taeil laugh when he was trying to take an order and had to ask for it to be repeated. He looked over at the pair of them and tripped over his feet when Jihoon beamed at him from across the room. 

Just as his shift was ending, as he was getting ready to start closing everything out, a rush hit as some event nearby ended and he was thrown into a sudden new tornado of people. Five tables and two hours after his shift was supposed to end, he stood in the back for a moment like a zombie with his head resting against the cool surface of the freezer door. 

“Jaehyo?” Ha Yeon asked, reaching up to poke at his arm. “Are you… okay?” 

He grunted noncommittally. 

She hummed, poking at him a little harder. “Those guys are still waiting on you.”

This time, he groaned, pushing away from the wall and forcing himself to stumble out of the back with his apron thrown over his shoulder. He sort of blindly made his way to the bar, jumping when an arm wound around his waist. 

“Can we take you home now?” Jihoon asked, his voice low and soft and deep and right against Jaehyo’s ear. 

A hand found his and he didn’t think about it much as he was led outside. His whole brain had pretty much shut down, which was what he blamed when he mumbled, “Take me wherever you want if I can just go to sleep.”

The low chuckle travelled down his spine, smoothed by the large palm rubbing his back and he hummed. He was half asleep by the time they got to the car. As soon as he was deposited in the back seat, he was out like a light.

When Jaehyo woke up, really woke up, he was in a bed. He vaguely remembered someone waking him enough to poke and prod him onto his feet from the car, leading him stumbling and sleepy into a house and then dumping him into a bed. 

He sat up slowly, feeling hungover with dehydration and the kind of tiredness that one night of good sleep can’t fix. The blanket slipped down from around his shoulders and he blinked sluggishly at it for a few moments. He threw off the blanket and patted his pockets, not finding his phone to check the time. It was probably dead anyway. When he swung his feet to the floor, his socks and shoes were gone, a pair of racoon slippers looking up at him. He hesitated, but slid his feet in and then finally looked around the room. 

It was… sort of a mess. Not filthy, but cluttered and lived in, clothes and bags full of them crowding one corner, spilling off of the dresser. There were three doors, two of them sitting open. One was a bathroom in a similar state of semi-clean disarray and the other was a closet that seemed to be at max volume of Ralph Lauren. Monkeys sat around the room in the form of art on the walls, figures on the surfaces, a few plushies, and one lone, stuffed cheetah on the bed nearby. 

Notably, though, the bed was massive and soft, comfortable like a dream. He couldn’t remember sitting on anything like it, much less laying in one and sleeping. The sheets were soft and cool to the touch, probably the result of a higher thread count than Jaehyo knew was a possible. 

With the slippers on, Jaehyo shuffled to the bathroom first, tripping over his sleepy feet as he went. After he washed his face a few times in a row, he opened the third door and peeked out into the hallway. It was little more put together, with framed photos along the walls and a few more doors. Resisting the urge to snoop, he settled with looking at the pictures. Mostly, they were semi-abstract, blurry in places and focused in others. A few were drawn pieces, just as abstract as the others and kind of trippy. 

At the end of the hall, Jaehyo could hear laughter, talking. A TV. He moved toward that. 

When he peeked around the corner, he found Taeil and Jihoon splayed out on the sofa, talking softly and laughing at the TV. Running Man, from the sound of it. He stayed there, watching them quietly for a moment. The room was massive, open, with a dining room on one side and a huge fish tank against the wall and a large sectional in front of the TV. Jihoon was laid across it, his head in Taeil’s lap and their fingers slotted together over his stomach. They both had a beer, although Taeil’s was on a small table and Jihoon’s was on the floor beside them. It had been before noon when they picked him up, but he didn’t know how long he’d been asleep. Long enough that the light coming through the window was starting to turn orange instead of being bright. 

He shifted a little, uncertain, but the movement was enough to catch their attention and both men looked at him. Whatever he expected, the brilliance of their smiles surpassed it. He tried to return one, but it still felt unsure. Maybe a little hopeful. 

“Morning,” Taeil said simply, reaching out to him. “You hungry? We can order something.”

Jihoon sat up, swinging his feet down and nearly knocking the beer over in his rush. “Do you like Running Man?”

After a moment, Jaehyo shuffled forward toward the couch. He started toward the third seat, on Jihoon’s other side, but an arm around his waist hooked him and dragged him down between them instead. There was barely enough room, but it was warm and Jihoon’s arm stayed around his waist and he was still sleepy enough to forget he was supposed to not sink into that. “What time is it?” he mumbled, ignoring both questions from them. 

“Seven,” Taeil answered, presenting his phone to him from the table beside him. “We plugged your phone in out here so it wouldn’t wake you up. It went off a lot for a little while, but it’s stopped now.”

With an only mildly interested hum, he took the phone and burrowed down into Jihoon’s side, scrolling through the texts without really reading them. Twelve of them were from Kwang Seon, varying degrees of worry and speculation on who the men were. Two were from Eun Mi, telling him to be safe and get some rest. Three more were from Yukwon, and the spark of irritation woke him up enough to actually read those. 

[12:19] _ jihoon sent minhyuk a picture of you passed out in his bed so i guess they picked you up _   
[12:24]  _ i know youre gonna be pissed at me for giving them your schedule but i literally have seen them more than you this week _ _  
_ [1:47]  _ have fun at the giants game. if you dont go ill kick your ass _

He squinted at the screen, then tossed the phone on the table, leaving Yukwon on read and closing his eyes again. 

“Jaehyo?” Taeil asked, shaking him gently. He cracked one eye open, looking down at where their hands were connected and tried to remember when that happened. “You going back to sleep?”

He shook his head, but closed his eyes again. 

“Do you want to eat, then?” Jihoon asked. His voice was soft, hesitant, but it was right there against him and his thumb was brushing against Jaehyo’s waist. It was only soft brushes back and forth, but they were out of time with the swipes of Taeil’s thumb over the back of his hand. 

With a heavy sigh, he drew his free hand up, dragging it down his face. “Yeah. I haven’t eaten since this morning. Probably should get some water too.”

There was a moment of silence before Taeil muttered “Jaehyo, what the fuck,” as he got to his feet and headed to the kitchen. 

“Can we take you out?” Jihoon asked, smiling brightly when Jaehyo looked at him. “You’re still in work clothes, but if you want to take a shower, I think I’ve got some things that’ll fit you.”

As much as he didn’t really want to wear someone else’s clothes, and wasn’t sold on the idea of leaving, a shower sounded amazing and it wasn’t just “someone else’s clothes.” As far as he could tell, most everything either of them wore was designer. Despite himself, he really liked the idea of wearing it, even for a little while. “Sure,” he nodded. 

Jihoon let out a little shout of victory, smacking a kiss to his cheek that made him wrinkle his nose as Taeil returned and shoved a glass of cold water into his hand. “Drink that and then I’ll get a towel and stuff for you.” Jihoon had already sprung up and headed to his room, so he took his seat again, leaving a hand resting on his knee. “Are you gonna go with us to the Giants game, at least?” When Jaehyo hesitated, he added, “We already bought the tickets. Someone has to come with us and explain baseball.”

He snorted, giving him a little shove and drawing the glass away from his lips. “Yeah. Yeah, I will.”

“We still have to talk, though,” Taeil said firmly. 

Jaehyo shifted a little, raising a brow at him. “Yeah, we do.” Draining the last of the glass, he got to his feet and pretended it didn’t give him a headrush. “I really do need a shower, though. I definitely smell like coffee still.”

Taeil nodded and got to his feet. He led Jaehyo back to the hallway, then seemed to pause in thought for a moment. “Jihoon’s got all the good stuff in his shower,” he said after a moment, taking him back to the room he’d woken up in, which left Jaehyo wondering what the other options were. How many bathrooms did they have in this apartment?

Once in the bathroom, Taeil gave Jaehyo a quick run down on the shower. This is the hot, this is cold, this is the shampoo for bleached hair so don’t use that because your hair isn’t damaged. When he was done, he ducked out and returned with a washcloth and towel before he left Jaehyo to his own devices. 

It was messy, but the bathroom was infinitely nicer than the one in Jaehyo’s own apartment. No cracked and sealed tub with a loud curtain and mildly rusty faucet. This was a standing shower, with dark stone and a small seat, a little door, and several shelves of product. He turned the water on hot and it was almost instantly scalding, startling him. He spent perhaps too long sitting under the spray investigating the soaps and shampoos and conditioners and all the products on the little shelves. 

When he finally left, he felt awake and relaxed and smelled nice. He chanced poking through the hair products as well and played for a few moments, dripping onto the floor with a towel around his waist. Eventually, though, hunger beat out curiosity and he poked his head out. The door to the hall was closed and a few piles of clothes were laid out on the bed, a handful of options so he could make his own choices. He ended up in a pair of pants that were a little big, but a little short and a massively oversized sweater. 

Again, he made his way back out to where the TV was still playing. Taeil was drinking his beer still, but Jihoon was on his phone now and looked up with a smile when he came back. “Ready?” he asked, flicking his eyes over Jaehyo’s choices and then beaming brightly again. “You look nice. We should go shopping.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged, tucking his phone into his pocket. He wasn’t going to agree to anything until he ate and they had this talk. He didn’t have to wait long for that second part either. Small talk lasted from the apartment door, where Jaehyo’s eyes went wide when he realized it was an elevator directly to the apartment, meaning they had the whole floor, to the car. They waited for the valet ( _a valet_ _just for coming home_ , Jaehyo was getting stressed out by how sheerly pointless that felt) in relative quiet, Jaehyo found himself shuffled into the front seat with Taeil tucked into the back. 

“Leg room,” he explained, almost sagely. 

They were quiet again for a few moments, the radio humming softly around them, before Jaehyo finally said, “You guys can’t just drop by my work like that, you know?”

“We didn’t know what else to do to actually see you,” Taeil replied mildly.

“You can’t just work all the time either, Jaehyo,” Jihoon added, his low voice soft. 

With a heavy sigh, Jaehyo dragged a hand through his hair. “Yeah, well, some of us have to work a lot to get anywhere.”

A hand reached over, closing over his his. Jihoon’s face was tight, but he kept his eyes on the road and one hand on the wheel. “If you’ll let me help, you won’t have to work so much. That’s what the whole thing is about, Jaehyo.”

“If you don’t want anything to do with us, that’s okay,” Taeil assured him. Another hand came up, gripping his shoulder. “It’s… a lot. Two people can be a lot, it’s just… You text and you call and stuff, but you won’t meet up.”

Jaehyo didn’t reply right away, leaning on the window and looking out through the other side. He didn’t know where they were going, but he doubted he’d know how to get there from here. Nothing outside of the window was familiar. “I was trying to give you time to change your minds,” he mumbled finally. 

The silence that met that was heavy and he could practically feel the frowns they were giving him without looking. 

“What the fuck does  _ that _ mean?” Taeil demanded, squeezing his shoulder tighter. 

He huffed, throwing his hands up, but still refusing to look over. “I don’t know! I just… You guys are already a  _ thing _ . You’re already where you want to be and you want- I don’t know what you want, but I don’t want to fuck somebody for money and I don’t want to get my heart broken if you decide you don’t like having a third person and I don’t want to feel like I owe you stuff or you to feel like you’re obligated to take care of me if I-”

“Stop,” Taeil said sharply, prompting Jaehyo to take a breath he didn’t realize he’d gone without. He squeezed his shoulder tightly, rubbing his thumb into the muscle to try and force out some of the tension. He largely failed. “Look at me,” he prompted. His voice stayed soft, cautious. After several seconds where Jaehyo ignored him, he sighed. “I’m not going to promise that we’re all going to stay together forever, but we’re not just going to change our minds. We talked about being polyam before we even met you, we talked about the possibility we would meet someone at the mixer before we went, and we met you, and we liked you.”

“I don’t want to fuck you,” Jihoon mumbled, then turned pink and glanced over for a moment before looking back to the road. “I don’t mean- I just mean that I don’t want…  _ just _ that. I want to help because I like helping, and I want you to work less so you can get rest and have some time to spend with us so we can date. I don’t want to take anything away from you. You know that, right?”

Jaehyo still didn’t reply, but a little of the tension melted out of his shoulders. He didn’t pull his hand away from Jihoon’s, but shifted it a little for a more comfortable grip. Finally, he perked up a little, looking around and frowning. “We… definitely passed that store before. With the lady in the purple dress cleaning.”

“Oh,” Jihoon said softly. He didn’t elaborate until Jaehyo reached over with the other hand and pinched him. “Ah! I was just trying to give us time to sort this out before we stopped!”

“Have you been driving in circles?” Jaehyo demanded. He didn’t get an answer. Jihoon and Taeil burst into laughter, loud enough to make his head hurt, but he was still fighting a smile when he rolled his eyes. 

When they finally made it to dinner, it wasn’t what Jaehyo really expected at all. Nothing about the place was fancy, and it wasn’t necessarily expensive, but they had a large selection of booze. The food, however, was amazing. The waitstaff was friendly. They all knew Taeil and Jihoon already and welcomed Jaehyo as though it were totally natural that the couple brought a date with them. (Was it? He didn’t know.)

By the time Jaehyo had eaten enough to really think about it, though, Jihoon and Taeil were both… well, they were both kind of trashed. Jihoon was singing loudly, badly, into the end of a bottle and Taeil was talking directly to a picture on the wall about how cute Jaehyo had been when he was at work. He took a long, hard look at the bottle of soju he had in front of him, the same one he’d been given at the beginning of the meal, and pushed it gently to Jihoon. He might as well, since he wasn’t going to be able to drink it. 

“I can’t believe,” Jaehyo grunted, standing to his full height with Taeil over his shoulders, “That  _ this _ is what you two do on the first date you actually have with me.”

The waiter helping him get Jihoon to the car chuckled, shaking his head as Taeil giggled drunkenly in his ear. “At least someone is here to get them home tonight. Usually, we have to call a cab.”

Jaehyo groaned softly, stumbling when Taeil shifted and landed a smack on his ass. “Stop it,” he grumbled. “So do you know their address, then? I can’t get them home without it and I doubt they’ll want to stay at my place for the night.”

The waiter nodded as they came to the car, leaning Jihoon on it, although he instantly flopped over onto Jaehyo, who nearly collapsed under his added weight. It took some maneuvering, but eventually, the pair of them managed to get the keys and Jihoon’s cell phone out of his pockets. As the man fought with the phone to get the address plugged into the GPS, Jaehyo unlocked the car and dumped Taeil unceremoniously into the back seat. Jihoon was heavier, bigger, and took a little more finesse to get into the front. He pawed at Jaehyo with gentle, clumsy hands on his arms, his chest, his waist while he got buckled in. Taeil was easier to get buckled in, but yanked Jaehyo down on top of him entirely. It would have been far more intimate of a scene if he hadn’t hummed once and then promptly passed out. 

Once he was untangled, Jaehyo stood up again and pushed his bangs out of his eyes. “I can’t believe the first time I get to drive a Mercedes, it’s because these two losers can’t get themselves home,” he sighed. 

The waiter shook his head, passing the phone over and clapping him on the shoulder. “They’ll really appreciate it, though.”

Jaehyo hummed, nodding and bidding him goodbye before getting in the car. The apartment ended up actually being a five minute drive with no traffic, meaning Jihoon had made the block several times for their talk before. Jaehyo rolled his eyes at that too, and ended up having to ask the valet ( _ a fucking valet _ ) for help getting them out of the car. 

It took some maneuvering again, but he managed to get Taeil over his shoulder, the valet helping a stumbling Jihoon in an to the elevator. Once again, he confirmed this was pretty normal and that it was nice that Jaehyo was willing to put up with no one but two disasters like this. (He didn’t tell him that he was just as much of a disaster, just a different kind.)

Once the elevator came, Jaehyo bundled them all into it and was left alone by the valet. Getting out was another task altogether. He got Taeil out, then turned back to drag Jihoon. He hoped he had given them at least this much trouble this morning, but he doubted it. They were two and he was just one man doing his best. 

Jihoon hung off of Jaehyo’s side as he dragged him toward the bedroom, an arm over his shoulder and his sweet, liquor-slurred voice telling him he was kind and handsome and deserved good things. It was just drunken ramblings, but it made Jaehyo turn pink anyway. He dumped him into the bed and helped him out of his socks and shoes, the outer layer of clothes, and left him in a pair of Mickey Mouse boxers and an undershirt. 

Taeil was easier, because Jaehyo could just pick him up and he was mostly asleep anyway. Unfortunately, by the time he got back to the room, Jihoon had stumbled to the closet and was rifling through clothes for some unintelligible reason. Taeil got dropped onto the bed as he hurried to stop him and guided Jihoon back to the mattress. There was a thud before he got there as Taeil fell off the bed and Jaehyo yelped, abandoning Jihoon to get him back up. As he was trying to help him out of his socks and shoes, Jihoon disappeared again, into the hallway now, and Jaehyo had to chase him down and guide him back, promising that he would get the water and aspirin for tomorrow for them. Finally, after the third time, Jihoon curled up in bed, wrapped around Taeil with his face buried in his shoulder. 

Jaehyo, for his part, crept out of the room with the keys. Once he was sure they weren’t coming out again, he darted back out and down the elevator to the nearest store he could walk to that was open. He didn’t have much money, but it seemed like a good use of it to grab a handful of quick hangover remedies and hurry back. After waking them both up enough to force water and a cure down their throats, Jaehyo poked around the house a little. Bathroom, unsurprisingly. A room that had to be Taeil’s, although it didn’t have a bed in it, an office, although he didn’t know what they needed an office for, and a guest bedroom. He gave approximately no deliberation at all before stripping out of Jihoon’s expensive clothing and crawling into the empty bed. He hadn’t been up that long, but he was still tired, always tired, and the bed was made of clouds and comfort and smelled like flowers. He was out in no time at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me on twitter!! @6uglyguysandjae


	5. Push and Pull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon and Taeil are determined to spoil Jaehyo, whether he likes it or not. Luckily, he kind of likes it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter gets explicit again, but only at the end. If you get uncomfortable with it, there's no place to skip to, really. Just, you know... assume the chapter is over?
> 
> Sorry for the lack of Ubomb in this chapter also, but it got away from me and before I knew it, the length was comfortable and I didn't want to bog the fic down.

Taeil woke to his mouth feeling like cotton and his eyes feeling glued shut. He didn’t remember he end of the night, not really, but he knew he and Jihoon had gotten fucked up (again) and he should have a much worse hangover right now than he had. His head ached, but it didn’t feel like it was going to implode at any moment. His stomach didn’t feel great, but he didn’t feel like he was about to throw up in the next few minutes. He was definitely properly in bed, which was odd because they usually didn’t make it past the living room and passed out huddled together on the sofa. 

Groaning, he rubbed the heel of one hand into his eye and sat up. There was water and aspirin on the nightstand and he took that while he tried to remember what happened the night before. The last thing he remembered was dinner with Jaehyo. 

_ Oh god, Jaehyo _ . 

He threw the blanket off abruptly, accidentally punching Jihoon in the process and leaping to his feet. He was still a little wobbly, so he careened into the wall as he looked for his pants frantically. Had he left? Had he gone home? Had they fucked it up so quickly? Where was his  _ phone _ ?

A gentle knock on the door broke him out of his frenzied search and his head snapped up to see it open slowly. Jaehyo’s head peeked in, looking around with a frown on his lips. “Hey. You okay? Did you fall?”

Taeil stared at him for a few moments dumbly, his mouth hanging open. He was still sitting on the floor in his boxers and shirt from the day before, feeling crappy and for a moment, his mind blanked out entirely. “What happened last night?” he asked, his voice rough and dry. “What time is it?”

Jaehyo glanced at Jihoon, still passed out on the bed despite the hit, and moved forward to offer Taeil a hand. “It’s around ten. It’s not that late, considering.” He helped him to his feet and tugged him out of the room, closing the door behind him. In the hallway, he could smell coffee and rice and eggs. “You two got hammered at the place we went to dinner. I brought you home. Do you want this coffee?”

Taeil blinked stupidly again, still at a loss. Finally, when Jaehyo quirked a brow, he nodded and watched him pour a cup. He was in the same clothes he’d been in the night before, the ones Jihoon had given him, and he still looked soft, adorable. Maybe more so now that he had gotten some sleep and his hair was bed-messy. “You stayed,” he said finally. 

Jaehyo looked up at him and slid the mug of coffee across the counter. “Should I not have?”

“No!” The word burst out of him and he shot a hand out, catching Jaehyo’s and feeling relieved when some of the tension in the other man’s shoulders melted out. “No, I’m just surprised you did.”

He hummed, giving Taeil’s hand a squeeze and pushing the sugar bowl across the counter, getting out the cream from the fridge. “I carried you to the car and then up to bed. I wasn’t gonna go try to call a car after all that.” He slid a look over his shoulder before he started dishing rice into a bowl, just enough of a smile in his eyes to let Taeil know it was a joke. 

A smile broke over his lips and he fixed his coffee, catching Jaehyo watch him do it out of the corner of his eye. He wondered if he would remember it for next time. When a bowl slid in front of him, full of rice and eggs and kimchi, he finally noted his surroundings. “Holy shit,” he mumbled, leaning across the counter to see the rest of the kitchen in disarray. “Holy  _ shit, _ what did you do to the kitchen?”

“I didn’t break anything,” Jaehyo answered, far too quickly. He shifted some, moving in front of the stove, which Taeil already could see was spattered in grease and shattered egg shells. 

A snort broke free and Taeil beamed up at him. “ _ Did _ you break something?”

“No!” Jaehyo said again, still too fast. “I’ll clean it up, I’m not an animal.” The way his face started to go pink with embarrassment spoke to the fact that he probably did break something, and that he often perhaps did not clean it up. 

Snickers started first, then Taeil let out a bright laugh, reaching over to pinch at his cheeks. He wrinkled his nose, but didn’t jerk away. Progress. Baby steps. “Jihoon will clean it. He’ll be really happy you stayed. Are we going shopping today?” 

Jaehyo shrugged, moving away as Taeil tucked into the food. “Either that or go get clothes from my place. I can’t wear clothes borrowed from you two forever. Your pants are all too short.”

“Did you eat already?” Taeil asked, watching the man lean against the counter with a glass of juice. He’d made coffee, but wasn’t drinking it and had made breakfast, but wasn’t eating it.

A nod as he tipped his head toward the dishes in the sink. There were… more than necessary, to Taeil, but he didn’t know much about cooking. Jihoon did most of that. “I’ve been up for a couple of hours. It’s hard to sleep late. I’m usually halfway through a shift by now.”

Taeil nodded, but then frowned curiously. “What have you been doing for a couple of  _ hours _ , then?”

Again, Jaehyo shrugged, but answered, “Honestly, spent most of it not getting out of bed. It was really comfortable. Played on my phone for a while. Ate breakfast. Couldn’t figure the TV out, so I didn’t bother with it. I ended up mostly just looking at your fish. They’re pretty.”

A smile crept up Taeil’s cheeks until he was beaming brightly. “You wanna know about them?” he asked, sitting forward some. After a moment, Jaehyo nodded, lips turned up in a small smile. With a pleased noise, the shorter jumped from his stool and grabbed his hand, dragging him over to sit by the fish tank where he could rave about his babies. 

That was how Jihoon found them almost an hour later when he came wandering tiredly out of his room, rubbing his eyes with a fist and grumbling. 

“Ah, Jihoon, did you find the aspirin?” Jaehyo asked, turning away from where Taeil was telling him about the fish that  _ that _ fish ate last month, the bastard. 

Jihoon blinked at them sleepily, looking first at Taeil, then at Jaehyo and back a few times. “You… stayed,” he grumbled, his voice sleep-groggy, but waking up quickly. A smile was already pulling at his lips. 

Jaehyo sighed, leaning back some. “Yeah, he said the same thing. Yes, I stayed. I slept in your guest room and made breakfast, too, if you want it. There’s also coffee, but I don’t know if it’s still good. If it was ever good. I made it for you guys, I don’t drink coffee.”

“Why did you make coffee if you don’t drink it?” Taeil asked, laughing softly. He already knew the answer, he figured he did, anyway, but it was so… kind, that it didn’t seem like it could be right. 

The man blinked blankly at him, his head cocking to the side in curiosity and he looked so cute Taeil wanted to punch him a little. He glanced between them, between Jihoon blinking at him sleepily and and Taeil staring at him, and finally replied, “Well, you guys drink coffee, though, right?”

For a moment, Taeil was torn between shoving him to the ground and grabbing his face to kiss him. Instead of those, though, a scoff broke from his mouth and he got up, heading to the kitchen to pretend he wasn’t flustered by that in the least. Behind him, he could hear Jihoon’s voice, gravelly from sleep and soft with affection, murmur, “Thanks, hyung.” He turned to look just in time and caught his tall boyfriend leaning down to press a kiss to Jaehyo’s forehead. 

Taeil wouldn’t have pursued Jaehyo if he hadn’t been sure of his interest, if he hadn’t been sure he wanted to date him with Jihoon as a couple. They had talked about it, and were sure together, but seeing Jihoon lean down and press the softest of kisses to another man - to  _ that man’s _ \- forehead, made his stomach flip pleasantly and if he’d had any doubts left in him, they were gone. Jihoon looked soft and pleased and Jaehyo looked so preciously flustered that Taeil had to duck into the kitchen to get away from how sweet it all was, how much he wanted to crash into the scene and either ruin it or drag them both back to bed to cuddle for another hour. He busied himself with a cup of coffee for Jihoon instead and inspecting the damage to the kitchen. 

There was a broken spatula in the top of the trash, for starters, and that made Taeil laugh softly. For some reason, the wall had a splatter on it that looked like hastily cleaned eggs. Eggshells were on the floor, little bits of them that must have escaped from a shattered shell and Taeil was mildly impressed that the eggs he’d eaten weren’t full of shells. The most concerning thing, though, was that the cutting board that had been dumped into the sink was  _ cracked _ and he had no idea how he had managed such a thing. Jaehyo didn’t look buff enough to do that, not to mention why would anyone be using enough pressure on a cutting board to crack it? And for what? He had made rice and eggs and kimchi. 

Taeil snorted again, coming out of the kitchen to find Jihoon settling on the couch and trying to coax Jaehyo into cuddling with him. No surprise there. Jihoon was a cuddler at any time of day. He slid the cup into the other’s outstretched had and was pleased with the soft hum he got. “So the kitchen,” Taeil started. It was fun to see the way Jaehyo’s expression jumped to worried to guilty. 

“I’ll clean it up,” he said quickly, jumping to his feet.

“Hyung,” Jihoon whined, setting down the coffee and reaching for him again. Taeil was already settled beside him, but that didn’t stop the bigger man from catching the edge of Jaehyo’s shirt before he could get out of reach and haul him over. He landed heavily on Jihoon’s lap, trapped by his arms and a face buried in his shoulder. “You made breakfast. I’ll clean it.”

Taeil beamed at him when Jaehyo flushed and looked his way for help. As though Taeil was going to be any help at all. “He said we could go shopping today, too,” he offered. 

Jaehyo choked when Jihoon’s head popped up, almost knocking into his as his arms tightened around his middle. “Really?”

He coughed, smacking at the arms squeezing him. “Why are you so excited to go shopping for me? It’s not even gonna be clothes for you.”

“I like shopping,” Jihoon shrugged, pressing a kiss to his shoulder that made Jaehyo flinch away and scrunch his face up. 

Finally, before they could keep it up, Taeil slapped Jihoon’s knee and tugged at Jaehyo’s hand, leading him up. Jihoon let him go this time. He wouldn’t fight Taeil. “Why don’t you go get something to eat, Jihoonie? Once you’re fed and dressed, we can all go shopping.” He grinned up at Jaehyo, who looked relieved until Jihoon was up and kissing his cheek and darting to the kitchen. His cry of surprise made the relief melt from Jaehyo’s face and he gave Taeil a rough shove when he started cackling.

In the end, it took an hour for the kitchen to be cleaned up to Jihoon’s liking again. Not because the mess was really  _ so _ big, but because they kept having to pause when Taeil made fun of Jaehyo and Jaehyo turned and started a short-lived water fight, or Jihoon discovered the cutting board cracked and ran the others out of the kitchen to grumble about it in peace, or Jaehyo asked what he could do to make it up to them and Taeil teasingly told him they would accept a kiss each and he looked so skeptical but  _ thoughtful _ that he himself had ended up the one blushing. 

Finally, however, they finished cleaning the kitchen. They were all a little damp by then, but laughing and happy and it was so achingly natural. Now that he wasn’t being pointedly standoffish or awkward, Jaehyo was cute and dorky and playful and Taeil could finally see the idiot he’d been texting for a few weeks in person and hear his dumb laugh and see his  _ disgustingly _ gorgeous smile. 

After the cleaning and the impromptu water fight (begun by Jaehyo and won by Taeil, no matter what Jaehyo had to say on the matter) they all had to take showers and change. It was a quick affair, the matter of getting them all showered. Jaehyo went first, coming out wrapped in new clothes borrowed from Jihoon that made him look soft again and melted the both of them. He spent Taeil’s shower wrapped in Jihoon’s arms and was blushing furiously by the time Taeil came back. He spent Jihoon’s shower getting into a kick fight with the shorter man until Jihoon came back to see Taeil sitting on Jaehyo’s thighs where he was folded in half uncomfortably on the couch cushions and slowly suffocating under the little man’s weight. 

Jihoon let out a cry that was half worry and half laughter when he returned and lifted Taeil off of him to drop him unceremoniously into an armchair. “You okay?” Jihoon laughed, helping Jaehyo up. 

“Fine,” Jaehyo croaked, but then licked a finger and smeared it on Taeil’s glasses and nearly started the whole thing over again. His laughter was bright and giddy as Jihoon caught Taeil around the middle and hauled him up into the air when he shot to his feet. 

The three of them piled into a car and Jaehyo took the backseat, stretching his long legs out almost sideways and looking out the window the whole time. 

“What are you looking for?” Taeil asked finally, the fourth time he had to repeat himself to get Jaehyo’s attention. 

“I’m memorizing where we’re going,” he replied mildly. “In case you two get trashed again and I have to take you home.”

Jihoon let out an indignant noise. “We won’t! Tomorrow is the Giants game, so we have to make sure we’re ready and leave early so we can get there. You’re okay with a train, right, Jaehyo?”

He blinked blankly, finally turning away from the window to look over his shoulder. “What? Yeah, of course. How else would we get to Busan?”

Taeil could see this coming even as Jihoon said it, watched the surprise on Jaehyo’s face as he said it. “Well, flying is faster, and easier, but then you have to deal with airports and that’s even more annoying than the train connections. We could drive, but that takes  _ forever _ and it’s really boring. If you want, we can fly, though.”

“What?” Jaehyo said again, a little choked this time. 

“We can fly next time,” Taeil assured Jihoon. He couldn’t see the way Jaehyo had gone suddenly unsure, like this was the line of generosity he couldn’t get past. He supposed that was fair. It was kind of a lot. Jihoon could often be kind of a lot. 

He turned, glancing at Taeil first and then in the rearview mirror at Jaehyo, then nodded quickly. “Next time. We won’t have enough time to spend at the beach before we have to come back anyway.”

In the back seat, Jaehyo blanched and went quiet again. Taeil mentally marked down that Jaehyo does better when generosity is sprung on him than when it’s told to him. 

***

Jaehyo was still reeling from the thought of just… casually flying to Busan for a day trip when the car stopped and he blinked back to himself, looked around his surroundings in confusion. Shit, he lost track of where they were. He’d have to use GPS again if they got trashed this time. Maybe he could get Jihoon to tell him the code to his phone so he wouldn’t have to use his limited, and shitty, data. 

“Come on,” Taeil commanded, jerking the door open for him and offering him a hand. 

“Where are we?” he asked, a little suspicious suddenly. Certainly nowhere he had ever been, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. Why would Jihoon, who owned a metric fuck ton of designer clothing, bring him to an open air market with cardboard boxes or piles in the street of clothes? 

Jihoon wrapped an arm around Taeil’s waist, smiling down at him as he finally took the offered hand. “The mall, obviously.”

Duh. The mall. Obviously. Of course the mall. 

Jaehyo allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and out of the car in a bit of a daze. It didn’t come as a surprise this time when Taeil held onto his hand rather than letting go of it. It was small in his, soft against his hands rough from work and fishing. He frowned, looking down at the inked fingers linked with his and rubbed his thumb over the skin. “Your hands are really soft,” he mumbled, voice barely tinted with confusion. 

“Lotion,” Taeil replied easily, as if people commented on the softness of his hands often. “Because of the tattoos, you know? They don’t look as good if they dry out too much.” 

Jaehyo hummed softly in acknowledgement, reaching for the door and getting there at the same time as Jihoon. “You don’t have to do everything for me,” he sighed, conceding the door to Jihoon and shuffling past him, although he did like the warm hand that pressed against his back. 

One they were inside, Jihoon slotted himself in on Taeil’s other side again, close enough to brush against him as they walked. “I know. If you want to get the door, you just have to be faster.” He shot him a grin that made Jaehyo roll his eyes and give Tail a shove that sent him knocking into Jihoon like a domino. 

That was enough to finish breaking Jaehyo out of his weird mindset, brought on by the mention of flights. They fell into laughter and easy joking and Jaehyo remembered that he really  _ liked _ these two. He liked spending time with people he could make fun of and who would make fun of him back, but not in a way that made him feel bad. He liked being shoved by one and caught by someone else, he liked to push and then pull them back by the hand still holding on. 

The first store they went to, Jaehyo felt like he was caught in a slow-moving tornado. Jihoon spent several long minutes explaining to him the virtues of Ralph Lauren while Taeil zoned in instantly on a sweater that was violently yellow with a loud leopard print. Finally, Jaehyo cut Jihoon off and told him he could choose whatever he wanted Jaehyo to try on and he would retain veto power. In the first store, he found a few sweaters and a hoodie, the second wound up being a shoe store which he vehemently said he didn’t need until Taeil talked him into trying them on and then he couldn’t  _ not _ get them. They were too comfortable. 

The third store was more Jaehyo’s style. Perhaps it had to do with being in a rhythm of shopping now, possibly the way they showered him in praise when he showed them the clothing on him, or maybe to do with Jihoon swiping his card not just for Jaehyo but for himself and Taeil as well. (The leopard sweater was coming home with them and Jaehyo hated that Taeil looked cute in it.) Maybe it was the fact that Jihoon and Taeil seemed to sense that he was more interested in the wares here, but they wandered away this time and let him rifle through the shelves on his own.

With his arms full of jeans and slacks and shirts, he made his way to the dressing rooms and bowed to the attendant as she opened it up for him, waved to Jihoon and Taeil to let them know he was going in to try things on. 

The difference between the clothes he bought normally, thrift store finds and department store sales, and these was drastic. The fabric was softer, the fit closer. He had to try more than a few pairs of pants before he found a fit and a size he liked. The shirts hugged his frame more closely, following the cut of his waist and making his shoulders look broader. (Or maybe they were just always like that and you couldn’t tell? He wasn’t sure.)

He was tucking in a button down and twisting to see his back in the mirror when Jihoon’s deep voice called through the door, “Are you going to show us?”

“Ah, sorry,” he called back, hastily buttoning the rest of the way. He didn’t think the clothes here were necessarily exciting, more like what he liked to wear normally, and what he had on now even less so. It was only dark wash jeans and a white shirt, but the jeans  _ fit _ and he could feel the way they hugged him. He poked his head out at the pair waiting for him, seated in a couple of waiting chairs and fiddling with their phones. “Sorry, I thought you were distracted.”

The clothes may have been plain to Jaehyo, but as soon as they looked up at him, he was pleased that they didn’t seem to think so. Both of them froze, Taeil’s eyes going wide behind his thick glasses and Jihoon’s brows lifting. He allowed himself to sway a little closer, smoothing a hand down the front of the shirt to watch their eyes track the movement. “I think I need a tie with this one,” he mused. 

Taeil’s eyes kept going down as his hand stopped above the waistband of the pants, Jihoon’s eyes sliding back up to his face with a pretty pink in his cheeks that made Jaehyo feel powerful and beautiful. 

“I can get you a tie,” Jihoon said, his voice sounding a little dry. He started to get up, halted by Jaehyo waving him off. 

He shook his head, turning to the full length mirror to look at himself and pleased that, yeah, he looked  _ very _ good. “I don’t need one  _ right _ now,” he assured him. Twisting at the waist, he turned his back to the mirror and checked the fit of the pants again. They were tighter than he normally cared for, but if it made Taeil and Jihoon look at him like this, he was okay with that. 

“What do you think?” he asked, turning his back to them again and twisting to look at them. He couldn’t help the smug look on his face at the expressions they returned. “The fit is okay? My butt looks okay, right?” 

“Right,” Jihoon agreed, voice cracking on the word. Taeil didn’t reply at all, his lips pressed tightly together and his hand gripping his phone so hard Jaehyo was a little worried it wasn’t long for this world. 

“Great,” he laughed, smoothing a hand over the back of the jeans just to watch Taeil choke and Jihoon look away before he headed back into the dressing room. “I’ll finish up while you guys calm down, then.”

It was impossible not to laugh once he was on the other side of the door again, but there was something warm in his chest and on his face now that they weren’t looking at him anymore. Affection and interest and a returned sense of  _ want _ . It was powerful, to be looked at like that by two men he already thought were beautiful, two men he already wanted. 

The rest of the clothes he went through hastily. He didn’t parade them for the men outside, because he worried that if he did, they would never leave. Or, equally likely, they would leave too soon and he would be forced to confront the teasing he was already doing. (Not that he wasn’t interested in confronting it at all, but they were in the middle of something.)

After that, the shopping was a little tense, and both of them lingered close to his sides despite the number of bags they were all carrying. They managed another shoe store, a Giants jersey for the upcoming game, and a watch that Jaehyo didn’t think he would ever find a place to wear before Jaehyo let himself whine that he was ready to go home and they agreed. 

“Take out?” Jihoon asked as they got into the car, Jaehyo stretching out in the back seat again. “We can order something when we get home?”

“Sounds good,” he agreed, laying back against the seat and closing his eyes. Taeil remained oddly quiet during the ride, Jihoon and Jaehyo tossing friendly banter back and forth until they got home even if they were both tired. 

They made it home and up the elevator with the bags, but they fell to the floor in the living room when they got there. Taeil dropped his bags, then batted Jaehyo’s away and crowded in close to him, a hand fisted in his (still Jihoon’s) shirt to tug him down a little. “Let me kiss you,” he said firmly, voice dark enough to prove he’d been thinking about it since the dressing room before. 

Jaehyo flicked a look to the side at Jihoon, who was watching with interest, settling the bags in his own hands on the floor. When his eyes made it back to Taeil, he let them slide down his face, take in his lips, before he tilted down and forward to kiss him. 

Taeil groaned softly, like he was a fulfilling a craving he’d held onto for a week. Maybe he was. The hand in his shirt slid up, holding the back of Jaehyo’s neck to hold him there and the other moving to the small of his back. It was a little awkward with the way Jaehyo was bent to kiss him and Taeil trying to pull him closer, but his lips were insistent and warm against him. When another hand entered the equation, warm and firm against his back, Jaehyo pulled away to look at Jihoon at his side. 

He wasn’t really thinking about it, about the way Taeil was holding him or the way Jihoon was leaning in, or the fact that he was still surrounded by bags and bags of clothes. The hand on his neck urged him forward to meet the lips coming to his and Jaehyo melted against another set of lips on his. The hand on his back, Jihoon’s big hand, rubbed soft, warm circles into his skin. Taeil’s smaller one on his neck held there while the other migrated to his hip. Somewhere in him, he remembered it was supposed to be weird, but it wasn’t prevalent enough to actually make it weird. It was warm and secure between the pair of them, even if Jaehyo didn’t quite know what to do with his hands and allowed them to flutter uselessly and then fall to curl into the fabric of their shirts. 

Finally, Jihoon pulled away. Jaehyo felt breathless already and a little confused, and warm from head to toe. He knew his face was flushed and his breaths were coming faster. 

“More?” Taeil asked, just as breathless. The question drew Jaehyo’s eyes back down to him and he saw heat there, but patience. A genuine question, not a leading one. 

He glanced between them again, unsure. He certainly  _ could _ go for more right now, he could happily spend all night being kissed senseless by Jihoon and Taeil, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he was ready for that. He wasn’t sure he knew, logistically, how that was even going to work. 

Jihoon leaned over again, winding an arm around his waist and bringing the three of them even closer. His lips pressed to Jaehyo’s temple gently before he said softly, “You can say no. That’s okay.”

“If I change my mind,” Jaehyo started. 

Another kiss cut him off, a quick peck to his lips. “You can change your mind any time you want,” he promised.

Another moment passed between the three of them, Taeil and Jihoon rubbing slow circles into his skin and calming him. “Alright,” he said slowly. “Well… logistically… we can’t just stand here and make out, right?”

Taeil let out a laugh, shaking his head and leading the way to the couch. Jihoon sat first, pulling Jaehyo into his lap where he could lean against the armrest, and Taeil knelt beside them on the cushions. He was ready to say that he still didn’t really see how this was going to be beneficial for both of them, but Taeil found his lips again and slid his hands to where Jaehyo’s knees were bent in front of him. Jaehyo stayed stiff for a few moments before the warm hand on his back from Jihoon and the soft kisses relaxed him a little more. His hand came up, the one that wasn’t slid around Jihoon’s shoulder, and rested hesitantly against Taeil’s waist. 

This must have been some kind of sign, because it prompted the smaller man to press further forward and trace his tongue along the seam of Jaehyo’s lips, coaxing them open so he could lick into his mouth. The taste of his tongue drew a soft sound from Jaehyo and he didn’t know what the sound was, exactly, just that he made it and that it must have been positive. One of Taeil’s hands lifted, tangling in Jaehyo’s hair as he slotted their mouths together and explored his teeth and tongue with his own. 

Beneath him, Jihoon shifted, drawing his arm around him more tightly and mumbling something approvingly. Jaehyo couldn’t hear it over the rush of blood in his ears, but he pulled away from Taeil a little to turn to ask and was pulled into another kiss. 

Jihoon kissed differently than Taeil did, slower and more patiently, like he knew he had all the time in the world to do this while Taeil wanted to take and take and take. Maybe it was because Taeil was starting to kiss at his jaw, but he couldn’t tell if he liked the insistence or the laziness more. He worked Jaehyo’s lips apart with his own slowly, urging him to open up and then licking into his mouth like he was settling in. 

Hands were starting to move over him, Taeil’s palm sliding up his thigh and squeezing at the flesh while Jihoon’s fingers teased up the edge of his shirt, sliding under the fabric at the back to skirt warm fingertips along his skin. He shivered, squeezing Taeil’s shirt and pulling him closer as his kisses grew more aggressive again, teeth nipping at his neck and his tongue lapping over his pulse. Jihoon’s hand slid up, splaying flat and warm against his back under the fabric of his shirt and slowly sweeping up, thumb brushing over his spine. With a high whine, he finally pulled away to catch his breath. 

As soon as Jaehyo broke away from the kiss, Jihoon tilted his head over, nosing at Taeil until he turned to kiss him as well and Jaehyo squirmed. They were right in front of him, leaning across him to kiss with their hands on his body and their faces inches from his and it was…  _ hot _ . Taeil let his hand sweep up a little more, gripping at  Jaehyo’s hip, then back to grope at the meat of his ass where he was resting on Jihoon’s thighs. He shifted again, pressing into the attention as he leaned forward and kissed at whatever skin he reached first - Jihoon’s ear, it turned out. The low rumble of approval went down his spine and straight to his dick, hardening faster now. 

The arm at his back wound around, holding him closer and sliding along his ribs, up his chest to thumb across his nipples. Jaehyo let out a sharp gasp into Jihoon’s ear that apparently was enough to draw his attention away from the kiss. 

“So pretty,” he cooed, making Jaehyo flush darker than before. 

“So responsive,” Taeil agreed, leaning over to nip at his throat again, hard enough to leave a little red mark behind. 

When Jaehyo shifted, he felt the warmth of Jihoon against his thigh, hard and probably uncomfortable, but Jihoon just groaned and rolled his hips up against him. His head was swimming, his breath coming fast, and Taeil’s hand was sliding around his waistband to head for his fly. He was already half hard and it was obvious, so obvious, how much this affected him. Jihoon’s thumb and forefinger pinched against him, making him whine when he pulled. He squirmed again, felt Jihoon pressing against him, Taeil’s fingers brushing the skin of his stomach as he got his pants open.

“I don’t know if I want to fuck you tonight,” he finally blurted out. 

Taeil’s hands barely paused as he looked up. Jihoon’s stopped, but they didn’t move. “That’s okay,” Taeil assured him, leaning forward to kiss him again. “But we can get each other off without fucking, you know.”

“Can we take care of you?” Jihoon asked, lips brushing just against his ear and Jaehyo felt like he was going to melt on the spot. Taeil’s hands finished unfastening his fly, slipping inside and gripping him through the cotton of his underwear and forcing a groan from his lips. “Baby, let us take care of you,” he insisted, nibbling at the ear he was speaking against. 

Another squeeze from Taeil’s warm hand had him nodding and instantly, the hand slid away, up to his mouth. “Lick,” Taeil commanded. When he complied without hesitation, he chanced a look up and saw a smirk on his bright lips. “Good boy,” he hummed, slipping his hand back down and underneath the fabric this time. 

Jaehyo whined again, pressing up into the contact. He’d always been a sucker for praise, but the way Taeil said it, the way he looked at him, did almost as much for him as the way Jihoon started pinching and pulling at his chest again. His breath was coming fast and hard, Taeil’s hand stroking him quickly, soft and warm and confined in the now too-tight pants borrowed from Jihoon. 

“Wait, wait,” he gasped out, bucking when Taeil thumbed over his head. Abruptly, everything stopped. Taeil and Jihoon both looked a little alarmed, their hands and lips halting everything without moving away from him. It took him a moment to catch his breath enough to speak in a full sentence and even then he didn’t really manage it. “Your clothes. The- The clothes I borrowed from you. I’ll get them dirty.” He looked between them for a moment, feeling awkward when they both started to chuckle. 

“By all means,” Jihoon laughed, his voice still dark and sending a shiver down Jaehyo’s spine. “Take them off then, Taeil.”

Oh. Oh, he hadn’t thought that far ahead. 

Before he could protest at all, though, Taeil was smirking and both of them were lifting his arms, pushing his shirt up and over his head. He shivered as the cool air hit his skin and was pushed back against Jihoon immediately, caged in his arms as Taeil tugged at the pants around his hips. He whined, squirming in the grip holding him, but lifted his hips enough to help and didn’t protest it. It had sort of been his idea anyway. 

Jihoon’s hands spread out over him now, one flat and low on his stomach, teasing the v of his hips and the other moving against his chest, pinching and squeezing. “So beautiful,” he murmured, keeping his lips right against Jaehyo’s ear and his chest pressed to his back. “You look so good like this, so handsome.”

“Look how hard you are already,” Taeil purred, now on his knees on the floor, between Jihoon and Jaehyo’s with hands holding his knees apart when he tried to hide. Jaehyo pressed his lips together and tried to be quiet as warm, wet kisses trailed up from his knee. “Can I taste you?” he asked, allowing his breath to fan over Jaehyo’s length. 

It took a moment or two for Jaehyo to realize that wasn’t hypothetical. Taeil was waiting, looking up at him through thick lashes and thick glasses with his lips a breath away from where he wanted them. “Please,” he managed to choke out, squirming where he was caged in Jihoon’s arms. A shift of his hips had him settling into place where he could feel the other’s hard length still clothed and pressing up against him. Before he could say anything about how good that felt, though, or worry about dirtying  _ his _ clothes, Taeil’s wrapped his lips around Jaehyo’s tip and  _ pulled _ . 

Jaehyo groaned and dropped his head back onto Jihoon’s shoulder. Lips met his skin again, nibbling at his ear and filling his head with harsh, panting breaths. Taeil’s mouth around him was tight and warm and wet, smooth hands gripping tightly around whatever didn’t fit. Jihoon’s hands felt massive on his ribs, on his chest, on his stomach. Somehow, his hips slotted in perfectly and the tight bulge under his clothes pressed up between Jaehyo’s cheeks. Every roll of his hips had him  _ sincerely _ wanting to go back on his whole maybe-not-tonight thing. The mingled praise and filth falling from Jihoon’s lips, both for him and Taeil, was making him breathless and lost. 

It felt embarrassingly fast when Jaehyo finally stammered out a warning. Really, he wasn’t even sure how long it had been. Time seemed to be fake for him now anyway. Taeil looked up at him and kept his lips wrapped tightly around his head, his hand still moving along his length in the mess left behind by his mouth. 

“Come for us,” Jihoon said firmly, his voice like ash in Jaehyo’s ears. Hot and warm and soft all at once. Burning and everywhere. 

He let out a noise he refused to think of as a wail and bucked up. Jihoon’s hand held him down as Taeil swallowed him down. Panting, he fell back against Jihoon again and let his eyes close. Their hands were still stroking over his skin, soft voices still praising him, but he was too sated to focus on anything aside from the fact that it was just happening. 

“Jaehyo,” Jihoon murmured, a little less gently to try and grab his attention. “Jaehyo, why don’t you go shower and we’ll… finish up here.”

Finally, his eyes fluttered open again to see Taeil still kneeling between his legs, now with his jeans open and his hand lazily stroking along his length. “No, I want- I’m not just going to let you get me off and then bail.” He frowned, forcing himself out of the haze and starting to sit up. Jihoon’s cock was still clothed and hard, pressed against his ass and the shift in pressure drew a groan from the man. 

“You don’t have to,” Taeil told him firmly. One hand was still on his knee, a comforting pressure against his skin. 

Rolling his eyes, Jaehyo started to slide to the floor. “Yeah, I didn’t have to have your mouth on my dick either, but that was pretty great. I’m not just going to not reciprocate. Who do you think I am?” 

Taeil shared a look with Jihoon, seeming to have another of those silent conversations. Somewhere in him, Jaehyo wondered if he would get to a point where he could do that too. He banished that thought as quickly as he could.

“What do you want to do, then?” Taeil asked slowly, his hand going still from it’s slow, sure stroke. 

Jaehyo hummed, looking between the two of them. He wasn’t sure when it had come down to what he wanted, or why it did, but he wasn’t going to argue with being given that much control. It was almost disconcerting how powerful these two made him feel and he felt like he could get drunk on it. 

After a moment, he gave Taeil a push toward the sofa, urging him up onto it with Jihoon. “I’m not sure I’m mentally ready to try and blow two people at once,” he admitted, which got him an understanding nod from them both. So far so good. “But I can do one, if that’s okay?”

“Taeil,” Jihoon answered immediately, nodding his head. He turned to the smaller man and smiled softly, leaning in to steal a kiss. “I’m okay with hands.”

Taeil looked for a moment like he might argue, but then Jihoon reached over and gave him a squeeze that seemed to wipe the thoughts from his mind. He leaned over, murmuring softly in Taeil’s ear and it made the man open his eyes and flick a look down at Jaehyo. 

“What?” he demanded, frowning up from his place on the floor. Jihoon looked oddly nervous for someone with a tent in their pants big enough for a circus. When they didn’t answer, he placed a hand on each of their knees, sliding his hands up and inward carefully. “ _ What _ ?”

“Jihoonie is… shy,” Taeil said finally. He glanced between them again, between Jihoon’s slightly red face and Jaehyo’s unimpressed one. Sitting forward some, one of his hands cupped Jaehyo’s jaw and thumbed over his lips. “He doesn’t want to overwhelm you. Why don’t you take care of me and I’ll take care of him. Does that sound okay?”

His lips pressed into a thin line at that. As much as he was aware he literally said it, had been the one to set the line of what he was willing to do for the night, he chafed at being told he couldn’t have something. Still, he nodded and sat up some. His fist tugged at the front of Jihoon’s shirt and urged him down until he was close enough to steal a warm kiss. “Next time,” he promised. The dopey grin he was rewarded with did away with some of his irritation. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me on twitter! @6uglyguysandjae
> 
> Currently accepting prompts there and on curiouscat under the same name!!


	6. Imperfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyo panics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want this chapter to come with a HEAVY trigger warning for people who have anxiety. Like it might not be that bad, but I may have gotten a little carried away with how hard his anxiety spikes in this chapter and I don't want anyone to be thrown by it. 
> 
> Also I'm sorry I've been going through some stuff and this happened and I couldn't move on from it so here it is, a short chapter where basically not much happens but I didn't want yall to have to wait anymore. 
> 
> As always thanks to @beargrove for encouraging me and also for betaing uwu

“What’s that?” Minhyuk asked sleepily, blinking awake where he and Yukwon were curled up on the sofa. There was something inconsistently chiming in the room and waking them both up. Yukwon wanted to smash it, honestly. 

Once he had rubbed the sleep from his eyes, though, he realized it was his phone, with several texts coming in. It stopped, but he groaned and sat up anyway. The clock told him it was getting late enough that their nap might as well have been just going to sleep at nine pm. He didn’t want to bother with texting back, but it was Jaehyo and there were so many he figured it would be best. 

“Go on to bed,” he mumbles, sitting up and pushing at Minhyuk while he goes to his messages. “I’ll be there in a minute, Jaehyo is texting me.”

Minhyuk hummed softly, mumbled into Yukwon’s hair as he pressed a kiss to it and then getting to his feet and shuffling up the stairs. 

_ GIANTS _ __   
_ KWONNIE IM HERE _ __   
_ KWONNIE LOOK _ __   
_ IT WONT SEND THE PICTURE _ __   
_ god youre not even answering me _ __   
_ all these pics are gonna send when i get back to wifi sldkfjndlf _ __   
_ our seats are so good yukwon im fksjdkfjasd _ __   
_ THEY LOST _ __   
_ GODDAMMIT YUKWON ANSWER ME _ __   
_ THE HOTEL _ __   
_ GODDAMMIT THE FUCKING HOTEL IS SO NICE?  _ __   
_ THE SHEETS ARE SO CLEAN THE BED IS HUGE _ __   
_ oh my god were all gonna sleep in the same bed _ __   
_ oh my god taeil just ordered like all the room service _ __   
_ jihoon is so mad he ordered octopus he hates it apparently _ __   
_ yukwon wake up im having a crisis _ __   
_ hhhhhhh were going to the beach before we come back tomorrow _ __   
_ i dont deserve this yukwon _ __   
_ i shouldnt have come here with them _ __   
_ i locked myself in the bathroom _ __   
_ they probably think im taking a shit but im about to have a panic attack which one is worse _ __   
_ yukwon please _ __   
_ kwonnie please _ __   
_ i cant even go home were still in busan _ __   
_ god this bathroom is so nice i hate it _ __   
_ i could go swimming in this bathtub _ __   
_ oh shit i forgot to log in to the wifi and the password is out there _ __   
_ i cant go back out there _ __   
_ i hate this _ _   
_ __ maybe ill sleep in the tub

The last four messages were the ones that woke him up and now he was awake completely. 

[10:47]  _ dont sleep in the tub _   
[10:47]  _ are you okay? im sorry i was asleep _

[10:48]  _ oh you’re awake _

[10:49]  _ are you okay tho? _

[10:49]  _ im as okay as i was before _   
[10:49]  _ they knocked and now theyve texted a couple times. theyre worried _   
[10:50]  _ this is just a lot this is too much _

[10:50]  _ you should let them know youre okay _   
[10:50]  _ can you do that for me first? _

[10:51]  _ theyre just so nice to me and they arent even pushing to fuck me like we messed around yesterday but we didnt do anything heavy and it was so good and so hot and theyre so nice to me and i hate not knowing why _   
[10:51]  _ yeah _

[10:52]  _ why are you nice jaehyo? do you do it to get something in return? _

[10:52]  _ i mean no you know that _ _   
_ [10:52]  _ this is just different _

[10:53]  _ why? _

[10:54]  _ idk _

[10:54]  _ can i call? _

Yukwon sighed heavily, running his hands through his hair as he watched his phone. The little read receipt popped up, seconds ticked by, then the screen blacked out and popped up again with an unflattering photo of Jaehyo in a tiara from four years ago. He tapped the answer immediately. 

“Facetime me, you fuck,” he said as greeting, but his voice was soft, as calming as it could be. 

“No,” Jaehyo replied immediately, a little breathless and choked. It was his ‘I’m not crying’ voice, one Yukwon was familiar with. 

He sighed, moving the phone away and pressing the button to make it a video call. Despite his refusal, Jaehyo answered it. 

He looked like shit. Beautiful, as always, and tanner than he had been earlier, but Yukwon couldn’t tell if the red in his face was because of the tears or a sunburn. His hair was sticking up in several directions, one hand still fisted in it. His face was wet, his eyes red, the tile and faucet behind him showing he was actually curled up in the bathtub now. 

“You’re okay, Jaehyo,” he said firmly, voice soft. “Breathe for me.”

He took a shaking breath, dropping his head down to his knees and then looking back up at the camera. “I can’t do this, Kwonnie.” His voice cracked in the middle and it hurt. How long had it been since he’d seen him in person? Too long. 

“Can’t do what?” he asked, voice still soft. 

He rubbed the heel of his hand into his eyes, his breath shaking out of him roughly. “I don’t know. This. Any of it. I should be at work. I can’t- I can’t be here. They bought me these- these clothes, they brought me here and we’re in this really nice hotel and they bought really-really nice seats for the game. He bought them last week. Last week, when I wouldn’t- I wouldn’t even go see them and he bought me tickets and booked a hotel and I’m-” Again, he rubbed the heel of his hand into his eye and coughed out another shaky breath. 

“Stop,” Yukwon commanded, enough snap in his voice to catch his attention more firmly. “Jaehyo, this is moving really fast, I know, but you’re okay. You can tell them no any time. Okay? If they have a problem with it, I’ll come to Busan and kick both of their asses myself.”

“You couldn’t get to Busan,” Jaehyo argued. 

Yukwon snorted at him and rolled his eyes. “I have a rich guy too, you know. I could talk him into getting me to Busan for you.”

A snort came from the other side and he rested his cheek on his arm, eyes averted. “I don’t… know what to do, Kwonnie.”

He nodded, starting simply. “Do you like them?”

His eyes darted to the screen, then away. Those kinds of cues were half the reason he insisted on facetime. Jaehyo wasn’t a good liar, not really. The other half was that he knew seeing his face would help. 

“Yeah,” he whispered. When Yukwon didn’t ask further, he eventually went on. “They’re… fun. They don’t mind me being weird sometimes and Taeil has fish. We had a water fight. They don’t even like baseball and they took me to a baseball game. I just feel like I’m… useless.”

When he stopped and didn’t go on, Yukwon nodded. “Because they were already a couple and you’re dating both of them? Or because you don’t have money?”

He closed his eyes again, squeezing them shut and curling up tighter. “I don’t know.” He was quiet for a moment, thinking, but Yukwon knew better than to push him for more before he was ready. “I’m not worried about it being both of them. I thought I would be, I keep thinking I should be, but they make it really easy. They don’t just pay attention to me all the time, and they’re really cool about things and I’m not scared I’m going to break them apart or like one of them more or anything. That part is… easier than I thought it would be.”

“So the money then,” Yukwon prompted. 

More silence. A gentle knock on the door that made Jaehyo draw up tighter. Jihoon’s deep voice called out too soft to hear. Jaehyo closed his eyes tightly and turned away from it. 

“Jaehyo,” Yukwon called out. “Hey, come back to me. Look at me. Breathe.” He waited, watching him take a deep breath and blow it out. “Tell him you’re on the phone and will be out in a minute.” He hesitated, prompting Yukwon to say a little more sharply, “Tell him.”

A deep breath passed before he called out with a cracking voice, “Just- Just a minute. I’m, um- I’m on the phone.” The voice came again and Jaehyo looked to the camera and back again. “No, I’m- I’m not. I just need a minute. I just need to talk to Yukwon for a minute. I’ll be out soon.”

One more call and then Jaehyo turned back to the phone, rubbing his eyes. He looked calmer, at least. Less like he was going to fall apart at any moment. Now he just looked tired and sad, which Yukwon could work with. It was the right direction. 

From the stairs, he heard soft steps and looked up to see Minhyuk coming down the stairs, phone pressed to his ear and a questioning look on his face. Yukwon hushed him a little and turned back to the phone. “Jaehyo, can you look at me?” he asked softly, getting his attention again. Once he was looking at him again, he pressed on. “You need to talk them about this. I know it’s hard, and it’s scary, but you’re leaving them out there worrying about you.”

“I don’t deserve to be here, Yukwon,” he insisted again, looking desperate for him to understand. 

“It’s not about deserving anything, sweetheart. You deserve good things, and you know I think that, but the reason I stay with you is because I love you. I love you because you make me happy. Do they make you happy?”

Minhyuk took a seat, setting the phone to speaker and placing it down beside Yukwon, close enough to hear them both. 

“Yeah,” Jaehyo almost whispered. “They make me happy. It’s just- It’s a lot. It’s too much, Yukwon. I can never pay this back.”

“You don’t have to,” he insisted. “When you make me breakfast when you come home or cover me so we can go out together, do you do that thinking I’ll pay you back?” He didn’t answer, Yukwon knew he wouldn’t, so he pressed on. “No, you do that because you want me to be fed and you want to go out with me. You do that because we’re friends and you care about me. When Bobby gives you a ride home, do you give him a ride somewhere?” 

“I can’t,” Jaehyo argued, looking up suddenly. “You know I can’t.”

“Right,” Yukwon nodded. “You do something else for him. Coffee or bring him a snack or something, right? Give back to them some other way, if you feel like you have to. It doesn’t have to be tit for tat. You’re never going to pay back the money he has and he doesn’t need it from you. But you’re kind and fun and wonderful, Jaehyo. All they’re asking from you is time to get to know that.”

“Why?” He still looked desperate, unsure, but more trusting than he had moments ago. “I wasn’t even nice to them that night, and then I blew them off for a week straight, and I’ve done nothing to make them like me.”

“Sometimes you just like people, Jaehyo. Sometimes you just have a good feeling. You gave them this chance. You had a good feeling too, or you wouldn’t have let someone take you to Busan. You had a good enough feeling to go with them when they asked, and to call them back when you were scared for me, and to send me a text the morning after you fucked around with them saying how hot it was, which I did  _ not _ ask you to do.”

“You did it too,” he shot back.

Yukwon rolled his eyes, ignoring the stunned look on Minhyuk’s face. “Yeah, but that’s beside the point. I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying that whatever made them choose you made you choose them back. Don’t act like you’re a ragdoll, Jaehyo. You aren’t letting someone give you things you don’t deserve. You’re spending time with someone you like and that’s okay. And you know that I had that same feeling or I wouldn’t have given them your schedule, I wouldn’t have told them where you work. If I thought there was any chance this wasn’t something you wanted, or there was any chance they were assholes, I wouldn’t have sent them to you either. You know that.”

He had to take a deep breath when he finished speaking, but it was worth the lack of oxygen to see the break in Jaehyo’s anxious face. He wiped the tear tracks again and ruffled a hand through his hair, trying to fix it back into place. “What do I tell them?”

“The truth. Sometimes you aren’t okay and they need to know that so they can be prepared. If they know, then maybe next time, they won’t have to sit outside the door wondering what they did wrong when something sets you off.”

He started to get up, then paused. “What if they think there’s something wrong with me?”

“Then they’re wrong,” Yukwon said firmly. “If they’re worth your time, then they’ll figure out how to work with you. If they aren’t, you come back to Seoul and I’ll do better about spending time at home. Minhyuk will get over it. I haven’t been around, and I’m sorry, but I’m not leaving you behind, Hyo. Not ever.”

This time, when Jaehyo got to his feet, he swallowed hard and looked determined. He looked away from the phone, then back. “I’m gonna wash my face and go back. Sorry for waking you up. That was… that was stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” he insisted. “And I’ll always wake up for you. Go wash your face and go back to them. Tell them to hug you for me.”

He nodded, then waved and hung up the call. 

Yukwon let out a long breath and groaned loudly, falling back on the sofa. “Fuck.”

“Did we do something wrong?” Taeil’s voice asked from the phone beside him. Of course they had called him as soon as they knew who Jaehyo called. He probably shouldn’t have let them eavesdrop, but he didn’t want to spook Jaehyo any more and the more they knew, the better, really. 

“No,” Yukwon told him, rubbing a hand over his brow and leaning in when Minhyuk reached over to wind an arm around his shoulders. “No, he just gets like this sometimes. Scared. Anxious. You get used to it.”

Silence. For a moment, Yukwon was worried they wouldn’t want to, that they really  _ would _ think something was wrong with Jaehyo. He would hate to have to kick their asses after all that. Then Jihoon’s voice. “Thank you, Yukwon. We’ll take care of him, okay?”

Without thinking, he nodded. After a moment, he remembered they couldn’t see him. “Thanks, guys. You should go. He’ll be out soon. Just- No more gifts for a little while, okay? And hold him tonight. He’ll pretend he doesn’t want to be the little spoon, but he’s a liar. And if they have tea there, make him some. It’ll make his hands stop shaking.”

“Yukwon?” Taeil’s voice asked, high and small but enough to stop his hand where it hovered over the button to end the call. He hummed to show he was listening and waited for a moment as rustling came over the line. “Is there anything we can do to make this easier? To not overwhelm him? We wouldn’t have brought him to Busan if we’d known and everything was okay and then…”

Suppressing a groan, Yukwon twisted some and brought the phone with him, curling into Minhyuk’s side and pleased when his arm wrapped around him automatically. “Be patient with him. If he looks like he’s far away and he bolts to a bathroom, call me. He doesn’t do this all the time, but things are changing a lot right now, so it’s stressful, even if those changes are good. I had a million texts when I woke up and most of them were good, excited. Just talk to him, be there and let him know you aren’t mad that he locked himself in the bathroom, don’t give up on him. He’s worth it.”

A beat of silence and then Jihoon’s “Yeah,” which Yukwon couldn’t be sure the meaning of. Agreement that they wouldn’t give up on him? Or agreement that he was worth it? Both, he hoped. 

Then, abruptly, they heard Jaehyo’s voice, another shuffle, and the line went dead. Yukwon held the phone for another moment, then let it drop onto Minhyuk’s lap and curled against his side to bury his face in his shoulder. “They’ll be okay, right?” he asked, voice muffled against the other’s shirt. 

“Yeah,” Minhyuk said simply, running his fingers through Yukwon’s hair. “Just because things are a little more complicated for them doesn’t mean it won’t work. Sorry I let them eavesdrop, but they were panicked. Jiho and Kyung apparently didn’t help and when they heard Jaehyo say your name, they were hoping I might be able to.”

“We should all go on a trip sometime,” he suggested, stifling a yawn. “Maybe Jaehyo wouldn’t be so inclined to freak out if I was there.”

Minhyuk was silent for long enough that, for just a moment, he thought he was perhaps overstepping his bounds. He shifted some and when Yukwon looked, his thumb was flicking at the phone screen. “Yeah, we could do that. If you and Jaehyo can get off work, I have a weekend coming up and Jihoon will be between shows by then, I think. Might be harder for Taeil, but we could make it work.”

Yukwon blinked up at him, a little thrown by how quickly and easily he agreed. No wonder Jaehyo was so floored by being whisked away to Busan. Jihoon and Taeil seemed to throw things around a little easier than Minhyuk did. “Can we really just… do that?” he asked, brows lifting slowly.

He shrugged, putting his phone down and letting his hand stroke Yukwon’s arm gently. “I don’t see why not. We’ll talk to them when they get back, hm?” When he received a nod, albeit a slightly dumbfounded one, he smiled and leaned down to catch a soft kiss. “I’m not really tired anymore, but are you ready for bed?”

Yukwon grinned slowly and leaned up to nip at his lips. “Mm, yeah, I can think of a way to wear you out again.”

***

They were both huddled around the phone, the volume down so Jaehyo didn’t know who they had called, when the door cracked open slowly. Jihoon popped up out of his seat instantly while Taeil fumbled with the phone to hang up the call. 

Jaehyo looked a wreck. He had been crying, which they had hoped wasn’t true before. He’d been in there for nearly an hour and for an embarrassing amount of it, they hadn’t realized something was wrong. Food was still strewn across the hotel room, stacked on tables and chairs and a few plates on the bed. (Taeil always over-ordered, and so did Jihoon. It was tradition. Jihoon hoped that wasn’t the start of their problems tonight.)

fFor a moment, the room was silent, Jaehyo refusing to meet their eyes as he stood in the bathroom doorway. It felt too bright in there, suffocated by the soft yellow lamps and the white of the bathroom. Or maybe it was the quiet that was choking them out. Either way, it made it hard to breathe and squeezed the words back down his throat when he tried to speak. 

“Are you okay?” Taeil finally managed to ask carefully, getting to his feet slowly like he was worried he would scare Jaehyo off. 

He nodded jerkily, then finally flicked a look up at each of them in turn, then away again. Jihoon ached to cross the room and wrap him up, but was worried it would scare him off again. Finally, he managed to make his voice work again, pick up his heavy feet to take a step forward. “Hyung, I’m sorry. We didn’t- I would never have brought you here if we thought it would upset you.”

Jaehyo’s arms crossed in a move that looked like he was trying to close himself off when he really just wrapped his arms around himself. “We should talk,” he said softly. His voice was cracked, rough around the edges. He didn’t sound accusing, but guilty, and it  _ hurt _ to hear him like that. 

He stood there for another moment, then took a few steps forward. He skirted around Jihoon and sank onto the bed, pulling his legs up to hug his knees. For someone so tall, he was efficient in making himself look small. Another beat of silence passed before Taeil and Jihoon cleared the food from the bed and sat at either corner, facing him. He stayed quiet while they moved things around, stayed quiet when they sat, stayed quiet after. It was suffocating again, making Jihoon’s skin crawl and he wanted to break it, to smash it, tell Jaehyo it was okay or he was sorry or he would fix it. Whatever it was, he wanted this  _ better _ . 

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Jaehyo finally said. They didn’t reply, waiting for him to continue and hoping he would. Finally, he did and every word felt like a slow release of pressure. “Sometimes I get like this. I get anxious and scared and there’s a part of me that says I don’t deserve good things and just… You know, says bad stuff. I know that happens for everyone. Yukwon says it does. It just happens for me a lot worse than it does for most people. Sometimes I’m… bad. I’m not going to get better. This is just how it is for me.”

The silence returned, but Jaehyo finally looked up, fearful but determined and a little hopeful maybe. 

“What can we do? When that happens?” Taeil asked. 

Jihoon reached out, unable to stop himself from wanting to hold onto him. He looked like he was ready to break apart and he couldn’t help but think that if he wrapped his arms around him, he would stay together a little longer. “Can we help make it not happen?”

Jaheyo stayed where he was almost long enough to discourage him, but finally crept closer and allowed Jihoon to wrap him in his arms and bury his face in his shoulder. “I don’t think there’s anything you guys can do to stop it. Sometimes, it’s just going to freak me out that I can’t pay back how nice you are to me, and you just have to let me work through it. Give me a minute. Yukwon helps me with it, but I wouldn’t ask you guys to do that. It’s-”

“We want to,” Jihoon interrupted. Jaehyo halted, going tense in his arms. His head told him that was a cue to let go, but instead, he tightened his arms and pulled him closer. “I don’t want to just leave you to work it out alone if I can help. If there’s nothing we can do, there’s nothing, but would you let us try? Like he does?”

Pressure on the bed drew their attention and Taeil came over finally, writhing his way in until he was in Jihoon’s lap, wrapped around Jaehyo with Jihoon’s arms around both of them. “It’s okay to not be okay all the time. We just want to know how to help.”

Jaehyo curled up a little tighter, which might have prompted Jihoon to let him go if he wasn’t pressing further against him. “Why are you so nice to me?”

Jihoon pressed his face down against Jaehyo’s hair again, nosing at him until he looked up and then pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. “Because you make my heart beat faster the way Taeil does. I like seeing you happy and relaxed and even thinking of you being hurt  _ hurts. _ I like you, Jaehyo, and I like to be nice to people I like, and I want to get closer to you, and I want to love you. I want you to love me. Is that okay?”

When he hesitated, Taeil pressed in closer, nosing at his cheek until he turned and giving him another kiss, one that warmed Jihoon’s heart to see. “We both want to love you, Jaehyo. We want you to be happy. I like when you laugh and when you push back against me and when you try to be sassy even though you’re  _ bad _ at it, and I worry about you and it hasn’t even been that long, just a few weeks. I know it’s really fast, we both know, and we aren’t telling you we’re in love, but I want to love you. Jihoon wants to love you. Please let us try.”

Jaehyo spent another minute quiet, then tilted his head forward and brushed his lips over Taeil’s, turned and did the same for Jihoon. It took a moment of fighting, but he managed to swat away both of their hands to get away and stand up. “Where did that plate of snapper go?”

Jihoon huffed, dragging a hand down his face. “ _ Now _ you’re hungry?”

“Anxiety takes a lot out of you, Jihoonie,” he replied mildly, leaning a hip on the table as he poked around the plates. 

***

When Jihoon and Taeil brought Jaehyo back to Seoul, Yukwon insisted that they let him go home. He still had one day of and Yukwon pulled what he called ‘roommate rank’ to demand they spend time together. Jaehyo didn’t really think he needed to do that, honestly. He hadn’t really gotten to see him in a while and after years of being in close quarters, just a couple of weeks apart felt like years. 

Jihoon had dropped him off at home and made him promise they wouldn’t have to wait two weeks to see him again with a soft goodbye kiss to his lips. Taeil had crowded him against the side of the car and pulled him down for a kiss that was not soft at all. The pair of them left him on the stoop a little dazed and feeling a distinct sense of culture shock looking up at his run-down building and the grimy windows. 

He took his bags of clothes inside and dropped them on the floor just inside the door hen Yukwon rushed him and scooped him up in a tight hug. He couldn’t find it in himself to mind, though, and he returned the hug with just as much crushing enthusiasm as he was given. 

“Missed you,” one of them said, and it wasn’t important who said it first, because it was echoed with just as much feeling seconds later. 

A minute ticked by, then another half, before someone sighed and it seemed to be the trigger that released the hug. Jaehyo couldn’t tell if it was because of his little vacation or because of the hug that he couldn’t feel the tension that lived in his shoulders as much as he used to. 

After that, Jaehyo and Yukwon fell into a familiar routine. There was really no food in the house, but they were used to that and made it work. They’d always made it work. The pair of them squeezed into the kitchen, Jaehyo cooking and making a mess as Yukwon came behind him and cleaned it up, sighing fondly. Jaehyo told him about Jihoon and Taeil getting drunk and the following morning with breakfast and a waterfight. Yukwon replied by telling him about the first time he caught Minhyuk staring at him when he wasn’t looking - and then about the third, fifth, tenth time. None of it was new information, but it felt good to gush in person, and it warmed Jaehyo to see Yukwon looking so happy, so fond. 

The night passed with the pair of them cuddled up on the couch, watching some old movie about a dog that saved the day, Yukwon telling him about how he was going to be the  _ best _ dog dad one day and Jaehyo agreeing until they fell asleep on the couch. 

After that, things went back to… relative normalcy. Yukwon was around more and Jaehyo couldn’t help but feel like that was because of him, because of what happened in Busan. He felt a little bad, but mostly, he just liked the noise of him in the house, of sharing a meal with him, of sitting with him on the couch and not talking. What wasn’t normal was that even when they were together, they were both tied to their phones, texting back and forth and showing one another the conversations. It wasn’t normal that Jaehyo finally cut back on his hours. It wasn’t normal that Yukwon quit his job stocking shelves entirely. 

It wasn’t normal, but it was… it was  _ good _ . 

Maybe a few weeks of normal, but good, was what they needed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me on Twitter or Curiouscat! @6uglyguysandjae


	7. To Live And To Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyo and Yukwon both resolve to put a little more faith in their men. Some of it internal, some of it external, all of it important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT'S UP GAMERS
> 
> I'm. Sorry. Winter is a hard time for me, both emotionally and creatively, but we're uh. We're doing our best. This is very short and also veers away from everything I had planned before but have at it. I hope you all enjoy it!!

Jaehyo woke up to the dip of the bed behind him. Not fully woke up, god no. He was too tired for that after his minor catastrophe the night before. He felt arms wind around him and drag him across the bed as the body they belonged to came to meet him, but he didn’t think too hard about who it might be. There were two options but he was drowsy and comfortable and either way was safe and warm and pleasant. 

 

The sound of a door. The smell of generic soap. The warmth of steam. “He’s still asleep?” A high voice, across the room. Taeil. 

 

Behind him, a hum vibrated across his back and it did nothing to make him want to get up. “He deserves it,” Jihoon murmured, nuzzling down against his shoulder. “Let him sleep.”

 

A sigh from Taeil, fond instead of irritated. “Should we order room service for breakfast, then? I wanted to go to that place that has crepes before we leave. The one we went to with Minho.”

 

Jihoon hummed again, considering this time. 

 

“Time is it?” Jaehyo slurred softly, curling up a little and snuggling back against Jihoon. He could practically feel them smiling at him. 

 

“Just after nine,” the man behind him replied, pressing a soft kiss to his shoulder. “Do you like crepes?”

 

He groaned and rolled over, burrowing into Jihoon for a few moments and reveling in the fact that he could just  _ do _ that. There were a lot of things he hadn’t gotten used to just yet and this was one of them. Affection was easy and free with Yukwon, but he didn’t get close to many other people, not like this. 

 

Amused, Taeil offered, “We could get room service instead? The crepes will be there next time we come to Busan.”

 

Groaning, Jaehyo shook his head and then forced himself to sit up. “No. Nope. I’m up. Let me just shower and we can go. Will you grab me something from my suitcase. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

 

Once they assured him it would be in the bathroom waiting for him, he ducked in and turned the shower on. There were a lot of next times and laters coming up lately. Next time in Busan, Yukwon would be around more later. Maybe he should worry about next times and laters instead of last times and befores. He would work on that. 

 

The shower wasn’t as nice as Jihoon’s, because it was a hotel and Jihoon lived in an expensive place with lots of nice smelling, skin-softening, hair-shining suds to dump on himself. Still, it cleared away the grogginess and soothed the swelling he knew was in his face. He didn’t hear either of them come in or out, but when Jaehyo stepped out of the shower, a small stack of clothes was placed neatly beside the sink. A soft sweater they’d bought on the shopping trip before, something comfortable, one he remembered Taeil being interested in before deciding it would look better on Jaehyo and he shoved it into his hands. It was exactly what he needed, the kind of cozy that he knew would make him feel safe. Maybe they thought of that. Maybe they just thought it was a nice sweater. 

 

He took a few extra moments to try and bully his hair into behaving, but there wasn’t much he could do to it while wet and he would have to just settle for it being combed. No one needed to look that nice for breakfast anyway. 

 

Still, when he came out of the bathroom to seek out his shoes, they both looked up at him and smiled. “You look cute, hyung,” Jihoon told him, beaming at him like he was lighting the room personally. 

 

“Shut up,” he replied, unsure how to take a compliment that heartfelt. He sat and got his shoes pulled on instead. 

 

They took a cab to the crepe place and Taeil and Jaehyo fought over the merits of tea or coffee. Jaehyo wound up finally telling them a little about himself. He’d grown up in the country, outside of Busan. (No, he would not show them his home, absolutely not, shut up it’s not happening.) He has an older brother and moved to Seoul with his brother when he was in high school so he wouldn’t be alone during law school. He fell in love. Changin moved home. Jaehyo didn’t. He could have, he supposed, after things went south, but he wasn’t going to ask his family for the money, especially since Changin was still just starting out, and he met Yukwon. Thoughts of leaving Seoul fettered out when they became thoughts of leaving Yukwon. It was a different kind of love, but it was no less serious and real and powerful than the one that kept him there in the first place. It was healthier, too. Because Yukwon loved him more than she ever had, and when he was given the chance, Yukwon never chose to leave him either. 

 

Breakfast sat heavier on all of them than intended. 

 

After that, they went to the sea, just briefly. Jaehyo had almost forgotten how much he loved the smell of it, the feel of saltwater on his face, the sun reflecting up from the water. 

 

“We’ll come back,” Jihoon promised, leaning over to press a kiss to Jaehyo’s cheek while his eyes stayed closed and face upturned. 

 

Jaehyo hummed softly and pushed away the thoughts of befores and last times. “Okay,” he mumbled. “Next time.”

 

***

 

Yukwon didn’t want to go back to what he’d been doing before. It felt pointless and listless now. Dog walking was nice, it was fun. He enjoyed it. He’d always enjoyed dogs. That part was okay. But it reminded him that he didn’t have any of his own, and he  _ wanted _ . He always wanted. Stocking shelves was worse. He had to go back to it eventually, because despite being more ready than Jaehyo, he still wasn’t completely ready to give up all of his independence and just live out of  Minhyuk’s pocket. He’d never really wanted that. 

 

He’d never really wanted to be crouched in the middle of a fluorescent lit store, sliding cans of cheap peas onto the bottom row either, though.

 

It had only been a couple of days since Jaehyo’s Busan trip and they were both back in the apartment. Yukwon was trying to be around more, and it was nice to hear Jaehyo gush about the others. Why he didn’t see his family when he was in Busan, he didn’t know. Maybe he didn’t think about it, or they were busy while he was there. More likely, Jaehyo hadn’t had time to ask before he was whisked away and back. He didn’t ask, because Jaehyo was already excited about a return trip. Yukwon didn’t tell him Minhyuk was already planning it when he asked if he would come. He just said yes, of course, and listened to him go on about the ocean for another fifteen minutes like a good friend. 

 

The store was closed now, though, and he was alone with his thoughts. The others on his shift were working in different aisles, but they were all almost done. Good news, since being with Minhyuk had destroyed his sleeping schedule and being up all night wasn’t as easy as it used to be. 

 

He was going to have to find something else. He had to. He could afford to start over, though right? Now? A pit of nervousness welled up in him, a voice in the back of his head that sounded like something he’d heard Jaehyo describe asking him what  _ exactly _ he thought he was cut out for. A frown pulled at his lips, wrinkled his forehead, and he banished that. The more it pushed, the more determined he found himself.  _ Fuck _ working to survive. He was going to find the means to live. 

 

When the shift was over, he hitched a ride with a coworker who lived a few streets down. In the apartment, he found Jaehyo curled up on the sofa with his phone in his hand, glasses on and eyes closed. He sighed deeply and shook him awake. 

 

“Come on, you big baby, let’s go to bed,” he urged, pulling at the tangle of blankets he’d wound himself into. 

 

Jaehyo groaned and curled up tighter. “No,” he grumbled. “Waitin’ on Kwonnie.”

 

That pushed a laugh out of Yukwon’s lips and he forced one eye open to look at him. “I  _ am _ Kwonnie, now get up. You know your back hurts if you try to sleep on the couch, you giant.”

 

Slowly, Jaehyo blinked awake and then stretched, cracked his neck as he pushed blankets away from his body. “How was work?”

 

Yukwon rolled his eyes and helped him get up, dragging the man to his feet. “We’ll talk about work later, okay? You’re so stupid. Let’s go to bed.”

 

One last mumble about missing him made it past Jaehyo’s lips as he was dragged down the hallway and shoved down into his bed. Hopefully, he’d done his nighttime routine before he passed out the first time, because Yukwon wasn’t about to fight him awake to wash his face and brush his teeth. That was his own problem. 

 

Then his own bedtime routine started. Somehow, Minhyuk had become part of that. He shot out a text letting him know he was home as he started heating up something frozen that Jihoon had insisted on leaving with them. A minute later, a facetime call came through. 

 

The screen on the other side was dark, lit by the screen just enough to make out the pale shadow of Minhyuk already in bed. “Welcome home,” he said softly, voice sleepy. 

 

Yukwon smiled a little ruefully. “Thanks. Miss you, though. Were you asleep?”

 

Minhyuk shook his head and Yukwon had a feeling that he had been until the time Yukwon was supposed to get off of work. He’d seen him fussing with the phone before and had a sneaking suspicion he set alarms for when he knew Yukwon would be getting off so that he would be awake. “How was work?”

 

He shrugged, taking the food from the stove and going to sit at the coffee table where it was easy to prop the phone up. “It was okay. It’s a job. I think… I don’t think I want to do it anymore, though.”

 

The confession was met with silence, followed by rustling. Minhyuk sat up and a light clicked on. His hair was sticking up wildly on one side, eyes blinking away the brightness of the light. “No?” he asked, trying to sound casual despite his instant reaction. 

 

He poked at his food, looking away for a moment before he turned back to the screen. “It’s not like it was my dream to stock shelves. It was something I did to survive, you know? Get a job, pay rent, put food on the table. It’s what you do. But I have you to help me with that, so maybe… I can do something I want to do instead.”

 

The intensity of the stare that came through the phone, even though the eyes were trained just a little below the camera, studying the screen, made Yukwon want to squirm. He hoped he would get used to the way Minhyuk looked at him, how he laid him bare and memorized everything, btu he didn’t think he would. He didn’t think he could. 

 

“I don’t want you to feel like you have to quit your job because of me,” Minhyuk started, choosing his words carefully. “But I do want you to feel like you  _ can _ if it makes you unhappy. If you want to find another job, I’ll help you look. Do you want help with your resume?”

 

Something warm flooded through Yukwon’s veins and at first, he mistook it for relief. It wasn’t quite right for that, though. There’d been no doubt. It was more like acceptance. Faith. The rush of taking a leap without knowing if the ground was solid and sticking the landing. “Yeah,” he nodded. “I’d like that.”

 

A smile tilted Minhyuk’s lips. “Then you’ll have it. Any idea what you want to do?”

 

For a moment, Yukwon poked at his food again. He hadn’t given it all that much thought, really. He hadn’t even told Jaehyo yet. Still, he let his mouth open without knowing what would come out. “Maybe… something with dance.”

 

To his surprise, Minhyuk’s grin brightened. The shadows in the dimly lit room on the other side of the city made his dimples look deep enough to drown in. “I think we could figure something out.”

 

They let the subject drop. It was too late to make solid, life changing decisions and Yukwon needed to eat. They talked about their days and about dogs Yukwon had seen and about a particularly good cup of coffee Minhyuk had gotten, and Yukwon called him a nerd as he finished his food and started getting ready for bed. they ended the call with a sappy good night and when he woke up, they started the day with sappy good morning texts. 

 

Jaehyo was already at work, leaving Yukwon to his own devices for a few hours, which meant he got dressed and took a bus to a richer part of town where he could walk dogs for people with money to pay for that kind of thing. He killed a few hours playing with them in the sun before he made his way home again and swung by Jaehyo’s cafe to pick him up. 

 

The cafe had never been ideal and they all knew that. Jaehyo knew it most of all. The wait staff was great. Bobby and Hanbin gave him rides home, Chanwoo and Jinhwan always invited them both out for drinks, everyone covered one anothers shifts and made sure everything ran as smoothly as possible. The management, however, was next level shitty, and the clientele was frequently just as bad. 

 

It was a bad day today. Yukwon could see it even from the window, which meant he was staying right where he was. He’d tried coming in to defend the waitstaff once before and nearly gotten both Jaehyo and Donghyuk fired in the process. 

 

From outside, he could see Jaehyo standing at a table, listening politely and attentively as the manager berated him in a way that seemed too aggressive even from this distance. The table seemed smugly satisfied, which made him wish he knew which car was theirs to dig a key into the paint on the side. The complete nonchalance of most everyone around them reminded him that this was commonplace enough here that none of them cared, aside from Hanbin who was standing to the side, staring daggers at the man. He twitched forward as Yukwon watched him and his eyes flitted back to Jaehyo. He still looked polite and attentive, mostly unfazed, but now a hand was fisted in the front of his shirt and it was a miracle of willpower that kept Yukwon on the outside of the glass. He stepped away and took a seat on the curb to keep from running inside. 

 

When Jaehyo’s shift finally ended, half an hour later than it should have, he stepped outside and caught sight of Yukwon seated on the curb staring at his phone. “How long have you been here?” he asked slowly. 

 

“I saw,” came the easy reply. That was the real question anyway. “Maybe you should quit.”

 

“I can’t quit,” Jaehyo replied instantly, the same kneejerk answer he gave every time Yukwon made the suggestion. He reached down and gripped his hand, pulling his friend to his feet. 

 

Yukwon stayed silent for a moment as they headed toward the bus stop. “You could. Now. We have rent paid. You know Jihoon and Taeil would be happy for you to have the free time and you could take shifts just at the diner.”

 

Jaehyo replied in kind, with a long silence. The sound of cars passing and their steps on the gravel filled it in at the edges, but left the middle hollow and waiting. “I can’t,” he said again. “I’m not gonna leave them there like that. He won’t hire someone new, he’ll just make them pick up the slack and I won’t do that to them.” 

 

His jaw set, a huff pushed from his nose. “You need more time to yourself, Hyo. You’re taking fewer shifts, but it’s still a lot, and they’re  _ terrible _ . You can’t stay there forever just because you don’t want anything to happen to the people who can’t leave.”

 

“I’m not going to leave them,” he said again, resolute and stubborn. 

 

Yukwon, of course, wasn’t going to let it die that easily, but he had other weapons in his arsenal now. Rich, loving, convincing weapons. Instead, he let the subject change. “I’m going to quit the shop.”

 

Jaehyo stumbled over his feet and caught himself in time to crash land his ass on the bus stop seat. “You’re what?”

 

He gave a firm nod. “We don’t have to struggle, which means I don’t have to work there. I hate it there. It’s quiet and lonely and I’m on a different schedule from you and Minhyuk. I’m going to quit.”

 

He didn’t look at Jaehyo, but he could feel the stare he was giving him. He could feel the arguments coming to his friend’s lips and being pushed back immediately as he realized they were unimportant reasons now. Finally, he carefully tried, “Are you… going to get something else?”

 

Another nod. “I’m going to find something with dance. Minhyuk said he would give me a reference and he’s… You know, whatever he is at the company. So there’s that. And if I don’t find something right away, then I’ll be okay to wait.”

 

Jaehyo stared at him for another long moment. The tension felt thick like oatmeal left to sit too long. When he finally spoke, it was hesitant and a little confused. “You trust him so much.”

 

Yukwon turned to look at him finally, catching a little of the confusion and wonder on his face. He reached out, threading their fingers as the bus came into sight. “You don’t always end up burned, you know,” he reminded him. “Sometimes, you trust people and it works out. Look at you and me.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on twitter and curiouscat! @6uglyguysandjae


	8. From Bottom There Is Only Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yukwon has made a decision. Jaehyo has a decision thrust upon him. (Not in the sexy way.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello it has been 3 Million Years. I am sorry everyone and I appreciate your patience. I thought I knew where this story was going but joke's on me! Every time I make a plan, it just get swept out from under me. I hope this chapter isn't too much, but if it is, this is where we are and we take what we get thanks for your time

“This is really, really boring,” Jaehyo mumbled, laying flat on his back on the floor of Minhyuk’s office. 

“You knew what we were gonna be doing,” Yukwon scolded. “I have to get this done.”

One eye peeked open and he shot a glare across the room. “Yeah, but  _ you _ said I should come and I trusted you. Clearly, a horrible mistake.”

“Why don’t you go bother Jiho or Kyung?” Minhyuk was still tapping away at the computer, typing Yukwon’s resume. 

Yukwon shook his head quickly. “No, we need him.”

Jaehyo frowned, shooting upright. “For  _ what _ ? I’m not helping you.”

“You remembered half the dates he needed,” Minhyuk supplied. “And two performances Yukwon didn’t think to count.”

His frown deepened. “Just because they were street performances doesn’t mean they didn’t count. There are videos on Youtube.”

Minhyuk hummed and nodded, sitting back. “Yes, there are, and who uploaded those?” When Jaehyo looked disgruntled, he nodded again. “Anyway, we’re done. We can start sending these out soon, when you’re more sure of what you want to do.” He smiled up at the man seated on the corner of his desk, peering over at the computer. “Stop worrying about it. We’ve got this.”

His hands released from the desk, stretching out where they were white-knuckled on the wood. It was just a resume, but it was  _ terrifying _ . “So what should we do now? Should we start looking on job sites?”

Across the room, Jaehyo groaned. 

“No,” Minhyuk laughed, taking one of Yukwon’s hands and rubbing into the joints with his thumbs. “Let’s take a break. It’s not urgent. I know it feels that way, but rest is important, okay? Want to take a walk around the building?”

“Yes!” came the voice from the floor. It went ignored. 

A small smile tilted the corner of Yukwon’s lips. “Sure,” he said softly, leaning down and catching Minhyuk’s for a soft kiss. “I’d like that.”

“Help me up!” Jaehyo called, reaching up for him. “Can we see where Taeil works?”

Again, they ignored him. “Let’s stop in the cafe downstairs before we do the tour. I need a coffee.”

“Hello? Help?”

“You always need a coffee.”

Minhyuk shrugged as he snagged the suit jacket from the hook by the door and the snapback on the one beside it. The hat went onto Yukwon’s head before he pulled the jacket on. “I do always need a coffee, yes. Should have opened a coffee shop instead of a company, hm?”

“I fucking hate both of you,” Jaehyo mumbled, climbing to his feet finally and then giving Yukwon a shove while he laughed. 

That started the bickering, which was enough to pull Yukwon the rest of the way out of his anxious moment, as well as the arm around his waist as they stepped into the elevator and rode down to the first floor. Minhyuk paid for the coffee and stared daggers at Jaehyo with his tea, who defended his choice  _ adamantly _ . Then they went up, walking mostly through hallways of offices on the lower floors, then recording booths as they moved up. When they made it to the practice rooms, Jaehyo peeked into each one as he insisted he was just curious. The moment he heard Taeil’s voice from the other side of a door, clear and high and interrupted itself to give instruction, he halted with a small smile on his face and waved them on. They wandered down the hall just slowly enough to see him slip inside, but were too far to hear anything after. 

“They’re cute,” Minhyuk said softly. 

Yukwon hummed, tucking himself a little closer. “They are. I’m glad he’s finally getting over himself a little.”

“He’s just anxious.” The night Yukwon facetimed his friend while he cried in a tub in Busan was forced back into his mind and he leaned a little more sympathetic toward him. 

“No,” he corrected easily. “He’s being a  _ bitch _ . Anxiety is one thing, but he’s always been a bitch too. You can be a bitch and still have anxiety, Minhyuk. Don’t limit him.”

He covered his laugh with a sip of coffee as they started up the stairs to the next floor. “A bitch because he wasn’t ready to jump in with Taeil and Jihoon at the drop of a hat?”

Yukwon’s eyes rolled again. “No, because that’s who he is. He’s always like this. He wants to date, but he’s weird about getting close to people because  _ he’s _ weird and when he likes something he pushes at it. Not to get rid of it, but like. I mean, he was hurt really bad once, but that’s just how he is. He wants to be romantic, but he also wants to be a dick. They’re good for him is what I mean.”

“I see,” Minhyuk agreed, pausing where they stood at the door to one of the dance studios. Inside, a choreographer was showing steps in slow motion to trainees, carefully correcting their movements. “Well, it’s lucky we found you two, isn’t it?”

“Jaehyo and I are lucky to have found  _ you _ ,” Yukwon replied softly, eyes trained on the people practicing through the little glass window. 

His arms wound around the man, hands folding over the coffee. “Do you think you haven’t improved my life at all, Yukwon? Do you think I don’t feel just as lucky?” There was no reply, which prompted a soft kiss to be placed on the nape of his neck. He revelled in the shiver it brought up. “I was lonely, you know? I know that sounds… I had Taeil and Jihoon and Kyung and Jiho, but - God, this sounds stupid, I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t,” Yukwon argued. “Keep going.”

His arms pulled tighter, squeezing him around the middle and pulling him to his chest until Yukwon laid a hand over his wrist. “I just. I meet a lot of people this way and I don’t  _ like _ any of them. They want something from me that I can’t give. Not money, I don’t care about that, but they want things that are empty, they want this shell of something that they can fill up like I’m empty and I’m  _ not _ . I thought maybe if I just signed up for that stupid site like the guys told me to, I’d at least know what I was getting into when someone acted that same way and you don’t.” His face tucked down for a moment, arms tightening again. It was like bleeding, saying all of this out loud. He was bleeding out, feeling drained and a little weak. “You think it was lucky for you to find us, but you were in the last place I looked. You don’t make me feel like you’re trying to fill me in, but I feel  _ full _ with you.” He wouldn’t say he was in love with it. It had been a month, or nearly. Who was counting? (He was counting, but he wasn’t acknowledging that right now.) But he knew when he was falling in love, he knew he had always fallen too fast, and he knew the romantic in him was head over heels. 

If this was dangerous, let him walk headfirst into it. He wasn’t going back now. 

Yukwon leaned back, turning his head to rub his cheek into Minhyuk’s styled hair. It would be messy after, and it couldn’t feel great, but it got him to look up. “Maybe we’re both lucky,” he conceded, pressing a kiss to the spot a dimple would make an appearance right after his lips pulled away. “And I think I know what I want to do.”

“Yeah?” 

He nodded, looking back into the room where the trainees were getting started on a run through of Sorry, Sorry. “That.”

Minhyuk paused for a moment, taken aback. Carefully, he asked, “You want… to be a trainee?”

“What? No.” Yukwon turned to look at him, laughing a little. “A choreographer. Or an instructor maybe, like Taeil. But dancing, obviously.”

“Oh.” He held a moment, then sat up slightly. “Oh, really? Do you… want to do that here?”

He’d turned back to the little window, but at the question, his lips tightened. “I wouldn’t want to get hired just because of you.”

Minhyuk let out a soft laugh, reaching over to kiss his cheek. “I assure you, I’ll have no hand in it. We can send in the resume, you can do the audition. I’ll make sure to stay out of it.”

“You put yourself as a reference on my resume.”

“I’ll make sure to stay out of it after we change that,” he offered, smiling a little wider. “But I’m not going to let some other company snap you up before mine even gets a shot. Okay?”

Rolling his eyes, Yukwon let out a soft laugh and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Okay.”

***

The day with Taeil at the office had been some kind of liminal space for Jaehyo. Something that existed outside of reality. The freedom he allowed for joking and having fun with the people he was working with was impressive, but the seriousness he held for what they were doing made Jaehyo want to do it too. He wasn’t necessarily interested in being a singer, although he liked it, but the way he spoke made him  _ want _ to improve. In something. Anything. 

That was reality. It couldn’t be. Jaehyo was back in reality now and it was a jarring shift from the day before, when he was hearing Taeil’s high voice explaining tongue placement to the sixteen year old girl who was taller than him. It was a hard right from the night spent crammed into the middle of the bed between he and Jihoon, an arm over him from either side ensuring he was safe and comfortable and also that no one was going to fall off the bed in the middle of the night. It was a sudden drop and a crash to the ground from breakfast and soft morning kisses and being driven back across town to get ready for the diner in the evening. 

“This is  _ awful _ . Take it back,” the woman insisted. 

“Yes ma’am,” he agreed, picking up the plate. It burned his fingers when he touched the porcelain, but he held it tight anyway. “I’ll be back with another in a few moments. Is there anything else I can bring you for the evening? I can come back with a menu if you need to take another look.”

“I don’t want anything else. I want that, but I want it to be made right.”

“Can you tell me what it was you didn’t like about it? I can-”

“Is there a problem?”

_ Fuck _ . 

The manager shot him a glare, then looked back at the table. The plate was still burning his fingers. He switched it to the other hand. 

“Whatever is going on in the kitchen is a travesty,” the woman told him firmly. “I want something edible brought out. I was just telling our server he needs to made sure whatever he brings back is made  _ right _ .” 

Not that he knew what that meant. 

“Of course, miss,” the manager assured her. “Jaehyo will see to it personally.”

_ How? _

A hand grabbed his arm, still holding the burning plate and jerked him away from the table. His jaw clenched with the hand clamped down a little tighter. The manager was saying something, but Jaehyo was focused on not being run into any tables or chairs, not dropping the hot plate still full of food. 

_ “Are you listening to me?” _

The tips of his fingers dug into some muscle, Jaehyo didn’t know which one, but his arm spasmed. He tried to catch the plate, but ended up with scalding sauce splashing over his arm. The plate shattered on the ground. The diner went silent for a moment. 

“Clean that up,” the manager hissed, giving a last shake and then letting him go to apologize to the nearest table. 

He was lucky he didn’t bruise easily, but it was likely he wasn’t going to be so lucky today. He used his apron to wipe the sauce off of his arm, leaving it red like his fingertips, then held it out to start gathering pieces of the broken plate as quickly as he could with shaking fingers. 

Perhaps he should have been taking his time a little more, or paying more attention. Something. The next thing he knew, the white rice that hadn’t touched the dark sauce yet was staining red and he had to pause to look at his hand. Along the side, there was a cut, Panicked, he grabbed the last couple of piece of shattered dishware and tried not to think too deeply about how the edges pressed into the palm of his hand. When he dropped them into his apron, one stuck for a moment and shaking it loose resulted in a fresh rush of blood. 

“Chanwoo,” he hissed, cradling the hand close to his chest. “Chanwoo, can you clean that up for me? I’m cut, I need to get a bandage.”

“Yeah, are you okay?” he asked, but pulled to a stop with raised brows at the sight of blood. “Jaehyo, you’re gonna need stitches. You need to go to the hospital.”

“I’m fine, I need to finish the shift.” 

“You can’t carry food like this,” he argued quickly. His hand grabbed Jaehyo’s wrist to pull him to the back and help him dump the broken plate into the trash. “You shouldn’t even be around food right now. Go to the hospital.”

“I  _ can’t _ ,” Jaehyo argued again, heading for the bathroom to start washing his hand off. It was still shaking, worse now. A few stray pieces of porcelain were still embedded in his skin. “I don’t even have a way there, and who’ll take my tables? I can’t just-”

“Ahn, what are you doing?” the manager demanded. “There’s still a mess out there. Chanwoo, get off your phone before I break it. What have I said about-”

“Jaehyo has to go to the hospital,” he interrupted. A bad idea. “He’s bleeding a lot.”

“Get  _ off _ the phone, Chanwoo. I won’t say it again. Give it to me, it’s going in my desk if you can’t get off the phone while you’re here. And Jaehyo, get a bandage on that and finish the order for 12. They’re already mad as it is and if they don’t pay me, you don’t get paid.”

“Be right out,” Jaehyo assured him, trying to pick tiny shards from his skin. The slamming of a door told them the manager was back in his office. 

“You’re going,” Chanwoo said from the doorway. “Too late to argue now.”

“You called Yukwon.”

He nodded. “He’ll get you fired if he has to.”

Jaehyo sighed deeply and dragged a wet hand down his face. At least he didn’t leave streaks of blood behind. “He won’t fire me any more than he’ll fire any of you.”

Junhoe peeked over Chanwoo’s shoulder. “He likes to look at girls and girls like to look at us. What’s up with Jaehyo?”

“Cut himself on a broken plate. Yukwon’s gonna come get him. He’ll probably call Hanbin to come in.”

“Nice,” Junhoe said, although it was hard to tell if he was kidding or not. 

“I’ll be out in just a minute, I just need to wrap this up and go tell the kitchen 12 had a problem with their food, but I don’t know what it was.”

“I’m sure they’ll love that,” Chanwoo said sagely, passing over the roll of gauze. “Have fun trying to explain it. And trying to wrap that. You’re going to bleed through it in seconds. Put some pressure on it, okay?”

Jaehyo grunted back at him, holding paper towels to the cut as he tried to cry his hands and holding tight to them. They weren’t that bad, but they were absolutely going to need stitches. He wasn’t wrong about that. He wasn’t looking forward to trying to get out of here. 

In a preemptive attempt to keep everything from combusting, he hastily wrapped his hand in enough gauze to turn it into a mitten and then knocked on the manager’s office door. No answer. A second knock, a little louder. the door swung open and the man glared at him, mouth drawn into a taut line. “ _ What _ , Ahn?”

“I need stitches.”

“Should have been more careful with the plate,” he countered, like that would change the fact that he was going to have to leave. 

“I can’t serve food right now, I need to go to a doctor. If you’ll give my phone back, I’ll call Hanbin in right now and-”

“You couldn’t get off your phone at the beginning of your shift, it’s locked in my desk. You’ll get it back at nine. Just wrap it up and get back out there. You still haven’t taken care of 12, have you?”

The door from the front clattered open and Yukwon stalked into the back area. “Jaehyo, get your shit. Let’s go.”

“You leave with him, you’re fucking fired, Ahn,” the manager warned. “You can’t be back here, Kim, it’s a health code violation.

“Lee,” he snapped, stepping between them and forcing Jaehyo to move back. “He doesn’t need this job as much as you need him. Hanbin is coming in for him, he’ll be here in five. Get out there and do something yourself.”

The man snarled at him, leaning down into his space. “Didn’t I ban you from this place? I could call the cops.”

“Do it.” Yukwon reached back, grabbing Jaehyo’s uninjured hand and dragging him through the back, through the diner, to the door. A car idled at the curb, but he didn’t recognize it. 

“Who’s this?” Jaehyo asked, getting into the back. He was starting to bleed through the gauze. He was a little dizzy. Maybe the cuts  _ were _ that bad. 

The car started again as soon as Yukwon shut the door behind him. “This is a rideshare. Minhyuk put his card on an app so I don’t have to take the bus. This is a good reason to not take the bus. Let me see.”

“Please don’t take the bandage off in my car,” the girl driving them said, glancing in the rearview mirror. 

Yukwon took his hand anyway, but assured her he wouldn’t before he he turned on the flashlight to shine it against the slowly darkening gauze. “Fuck’s sake, Hyo,” he mumbled, wrapping both hands around the one to try and add pressure. 

“Did you already tell Minhyuk?” Jaehyo asked, dropping his head back. He was too tall for this car. His legs kept bumping into the driver’s seat. 

Yukwon sounded apologetic when he told him, “Yeah. I was freaked out.”

“Think he told Jihoon and Taeil already?”

“Yeah. You want to give them a call, let them know you’re alright?”

Jaehyo was silent for a moment. “Don’t have my phone. Manager took it at the beginning of my shift because I was trying to check on Mom.”

Yukwon took in a slow, steadying breath. Finally, one hand let go and he pulled his phone out. It was then that they reached the hospital, however, and getting in and getting Jaehyo patched up took priority. 

The waiting room wasn’t as full as Jaehyo would have worried, and he was pushed through quickly enough that he didn’t have time to worry about his boyfriends being worried. The stitches went smoothly, though there were fourteen altogether. The doctor paused for a moment to put a cream on his arm where it was still red and scalded from the spilled sauce. He was given instructions, most of which seemed to be made specifically to keep him from doing either of his jobs, and then released with pain medicine, precautionary antibiotics, and a very numb hand back into the waiting room. 

When he reached it, however, he was swept instantly into a tight hug, held against a familiar body not tight enough to hurt, but secure enough to cage him in. “Are you okay?” Jihoon’s deep voice asked. 

A hand on the small of his back drew his attention to the side where Taeil was looking up with worried eyes behind thick glasses. Both of them were in sweats, which wasn’t necessarily weird for them, but it made him wonder if they had just bolted from whatever they were doing. Jihoon rarely left in anything that didn’t cost him what Jaehyo made in a week. 

“I’m fine,” he assured them, lifting the injured hand. “Stitches. Not a big deal.” 

Taeil’s tiny mouth pulled into a frown. “Seems like a big deal. You had to go to the hospital.”

“I’m fine,” Jaehyo repeated, a little more insistently. “I just need to get some rest. It’s gonna make work hard for a bit, but I’ll be fine.”

Yukwon hummed behind them and it made Jaehyo tense in Jihoon’s arms. “Says here you can’t be around food until the stitches are out, actually.” He looked up from the paper that must have been slipped out of his hand. “You’ve got two weeks off work.”

“Two weeks?” Taeil asked, brows raising. Jaehyo didn’t like the way Jihoon went on alert like a hound. 

“It’s not firm,” Jaehyo snapped, grabbing for the paper and closing his hand on nothing when Yukwon snatched it up. 

He hummed again, turning away and reading the paper again. “Seems pretty firm to me. Can’t serve or handle food with an open wound. Off work for two weeks, doctors orders. Oh, there’s two copies. That’s handy, since you have two jobs.”

“I’m not taking two weeks off,” Jaehyo insisted. “Manager Lee would never let me get away with that.”

“Who is Manager Lee?” Taeil asked, taking a paper from Yukwon easily and looking it over. Jihoon played his part easily, holding Jaehyo there with his arms around him while he glared. 

“Jaehyo’s boss at the diner. He’s a dirtball, always has been. He hasn’t told you guys much about the diner, huh?”

“Yukwon,” Jaehyo warned. 

He looked up, meeting Jaehyo’s eyes. A slow grin formed over his face, one that Jaehyo  _ knew _ meant something terrible. 

“Yukwon, I swear to fucking-”

“I want to know about the diner,” Taeil said firmly. He looked up at Jaehyo as well and the seriousness in his face, the darkness in the anticipation there, took the choice out of his injured hands. 

Jaehyo shifted uncomfortably, looking around the sterile white of the hospital. “Well, I’m not telling you here. Can we leave?”

“Whatever you want,” Jihoon assured him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“I want to not talk about this,” he mumbled. 

“Except that.” 

 

They end up at a McDonalds, which Jihoon seemed bizarrely excited about, given his economic situation and also because it’s a shitty McDonalds in Jaehyo and Yukwon’s part of town. They covered the table in food and Taeil had to give Jaehyo a hand opening things because of the bandaging and the numbing on his dominant hand. 

The three of them gave him an expectant look. When he shoved the burger into his mouth to give himself a moment to think, to figure out what to say while no one could force him to talk, Yukwon started up. 

“Jaehyo’s boss is a piece of shit and you should use your money to shut that place down.”

He choked on the burger immediately and Jihoon’s worry turned from looking at Yukwon in confusion to whacking Jaehyo on the back. 

“What do you mean?” Taeil asked, voice even in a somewhat ominous way. 

Yukwon sat back, arms crossed. “I mean he hires hot guys so his customers will have someone to oggle and then he treats them like shit and lets customers treat them like shit. The only reason Hyo stays is because he knows that if he leaves, there would only be seven of them. He won’t hire someone else.”

“That’s not true,” Jaehyo argued. 

“You literally said that less than a week ago. And look at you! You just ended up in the hospital and he  _ still _ has your phone. He takes it and locks it in his desk like you’re a bad kid in detention.” He was glaring at Jaehyo and they both seemed to have forgotten they had an audience. 

“I’ll get it back,” Jaehyo snapped. “We just need to stop in for a second on the way home. I have to give him this form anyway.”

“Oh, so now you’re gonna take the time off?” He sat forward some, challenge in every muscle. “You think he’s gonna just take that? Or is he gonna want something else from you?”

Jaehyo’s lips pressed into a line, shoulders going stiff. 

“Like what?” Jihoon asked, confused and distressed. One hand was settled on Jaehyo’s back and his fingers curled in to hold him just a little. 

“Don’t,” Jaehyo warned. 

Yukwon stared at him for a moment, refusing to concede. It wasn’t that Jaehyo didn’t understand why he was doing this, he just hated it. He wasn’t ever going to like it. Nothing could make him. 

Finally, Taeil’s hand joined Jihoon’s, pressing to his back and then sliding up to grip the back of his neck. Between the two of them was a safe space but Jaehyo still wasn’t thrilled about having to interrupt it to talk about the diner. He finally looked away, giving the ground to Yukwon. He should have told them himself, but he wasn’t ready for that level of commitment to restaurant murder. 

Yukwon sat up, arms folded as he leveled Taeil with a look. “If they need something from him,  _ really _ need something, the manager makes them play host with the customers. Sit and eat with them and flirt and all that. It gets the cute girls to come by so he can look at them. If Jaehyo puts in for two weeks off, he’ll spend two weeks on shift going on dates with entitled customers who think they’re somewhere nicer than they are. It’s a fucking diner, not a host club.”

Silence held the table for a moment, Jaehyo’s eyes down on the surface under his hands. 

“And he hurts them,” Yukwon went on. 

“Don’t make it sound like he’s smacking us around,” Jaehyo groaned, rubbing one eye with the heel of his hand. “It’s not that bad.”

“You have a burn on your arm,” Yukwon pointed out. 

Jaehyo moved to cover it, holding his arm close. “Yeah, well, I dropped the plate.”

“Roll up your other sleeve.”

He stared at him for a moment, another stand off, until Taeil took his arm and started rolling the sleeve up. The bruising was faint, but it was there. Enough to see when you were looking and they absolutely were. 

“It’s just a bruise,” Jaehyo tried. 

His argument was met with silence. Finally, Jihoon spoke. His voice was deep, it always was, but there was a gravel in it that seemed to come from held emotion. “Hyung,” he said, quiet but not soft. The emotion he held in was not grief, but anger. Jaehyo didn’t love the way it made him curl in on himself automatically. “Hyung, can I take care of this? Please.”

He refused to look up, running his fingers over the edge of the tape on the bandage. “I can’t stop you.”

A hand touched his face, cupping his jaw and pulling it up gently, forcing him to look Taeil in the eye. “You are not a thing we make decisions for. Jihoon is asking you if he can step in, not telling you what to do. Neither of us want to control you, Jaehyo, we want to help. Yes he can take care of it for you, or no you want to take care of this in your way?”

His jaw clenched, eyes locked with Taeil and he felt held there, but not trapped. There was a miraculous amount of control in  _ his _ hands and he would try hard not to forget it again. The hand on his back slid down to his waist and Jihoon pulled him closer, pressing a kiss to his temple. 

He sighed. Sighed again. “I don’t want the others to lose their jobs.”

Jihoon pressed another kiss to his temple, his cheek, the corner of his lips. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Can we go get your phone and see this place?” Taeil asked, taking the uninjured hand in his own and raising his brow.

Jaehyo turned a glare on Yukwon. “I fucking hate you.”

The drive there was awkward and largely quiet. Or maybe it just seemed that way to Jaehyo. The others talked, they all got along like a house on fire, but he himself was too full of dread and french fries to join them. Taeil sat in the back with him, talking with the two in the front but holding onto his hand with his thumb brushing gently over his knuckles. 

When they reached the diner, it looked exactly the same as it had when he left - kind of shitty, with a set of teens standing to the side and smoking. They might have been different teens, but Jaehyo couldn’t be sure. They all looked the same to him, with the same school uniform and the same sour look when anyone caught their eye. He took a deep breath and got out of the car. It was too expensive to be here. The teens stared and he was half tempted to tell one of them to wait here and make sure nothing happened to it, but he didn’t think any of them would listen to him. 

He probably shouldn’t have worried. Like before, the tattoos Taeil sported and the hard expressions on all three of their faces made them look like some kind of gang and the kids looked quickly away. 

Flanked by his boyfriends-turned-bodyguards, Jaehyo headed for the door and glared when Taeil opened it for him. “You’re not my chauffeur,” he huffed. 

“You have fourteen stitches in your arm,” he replied easily. It was enough to shut Jaehyo down in an instant. 

Once inside, however, all three servers went silent and turned to stare at him, as well as a few of the regulars. Then, the rest of the restaurant, since it was the cool thing to do now. Hanbin moved first, abandoning the table he was taking an order at and darting to his side. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he hissed. 

“How’s your hand?” Chanwoo asked, appearing at his other side with a pitcher of water. 

“Who’s this?” Junhoe followed up, leaving all pretense of actually working behind and eyeing Taeil and Jihoon. 

“I just need to pick my phone up and drop off some forms,” Jaehyo assured them. “I’m fine.”

Yukwon leaned forward. “Fourteen stitches. He’s off for two weeks.”

The three snapped a look to him again. “Two weeks?” Chanwoo asked, concern in his voice.

Junhoe frowned, chewing his lip. “Don’t you have a boyfriend now? Is he gonna be okay with you doing that thing?”

“No,” Jihoon answered for him, slipping an arm around Jaehyo’s waist. 

“Neither of them will be,” Taeil continued. 

A beat of silence followed, then a smiling scoff splitting Junhoe’s face. “Oh fuck you and your  _ two _ boyfriends.” He turned away, heading back to his tables before the spell over them was broken. 

“He’s really mad,” Chanwoo warned. “You might get fired for real this time.”

Jihoon’s arm tightened around his waist. “He won’t,” he assured him. 

Hanbin still looked concerned, but the door to the back opened and he and Chanwoo had to scatter, hurrying away from them and back to the tables they were meant to be attending. At the back of the diner, Manager Lee took a step through the door and caught sight of the four of them at the front door. Anger flashed across his face. He raised a hand, beckoning Jaehyo forward. 

When he moved, Jihoon moved with him, Taeil and Yukwon right behind. He had to pause, shirking the arm from around him so he could move between the tables to the back. 

“You left in the middle of a shift, before Hanbin was even here,” he hissed, catching Jaehyo around the scruff of his neck and shoving the door open to drag him into the back of the restaurant. “I should break that piece of shit phone for-”

His words cut off as a hand grabbed the one touching Jaehyo and twisted. Manager Lee let out a shout, teeth bared at the  _ much _ smaller man who let him go a moment later and shoved just enough to make him stumble. “Don’t touch him,” he said evenly. “We came for his phone.”

“You can’t be back here,” he snapped, cradling his wrist. “It’s a health code violation.”

“I’m glad you’re so concerned about that,” Yukwon interrupted breezily. The sheet of paper that he had confiscated from Jaehyo on the trip there waved a little before he handed it over. “Because Jaehyo working until he gets the stitches out would also be a health code violation.”

The manager’s eyes narrowed, watching the three of them. Jihoon wasn’t behind him, but Taeil and Yukwon made for an intimidating enough pair. “What am I supposed to do with an empty spot for two fucking weeks, Ahn? Wait around?”

“You won’t have to.” Taeil took a step further, staring him down and then breezing past him to the closed office door. “Where is his phone?”

Incredulous, he turned and followed his tiny intruder. “Get the fuck out of here, you can’t just break into my desk. Do you want me to call the police?”

Taeil shrugged. “Please do. I’m sure they’ll be interested to learn about what goes on here. Where’s the phone?”

“ _ Nothing _ goes on here that’s against the law,” he snarled in returned. Stomping across the office, he snapped closed a drawer Taeil had opened, nearly closing it on his colorful fingers. “Get the fuck out of my office.”

“Put the phone in my hand now and I’ll leave the office,” Taeil countered. His voice remained even, steady, his gaze meeting Manager Lee’s. When a hand reached for him, intending to drag him out, he snatched a hammer sitting on a shelf and swung to point it at the computer. “Put the phone in my hand now,” he repeated. 

“Taeil,” Jaehyo finally interrupted, in the doorway looking panicked. 

“You’re fucking fired,” Manager Lee hissed. He skirted as carefully as his anger would allow and unlocked the bottom drawer where two other phones sat with Jaehyo’s. “Take it and get out of my fucking diner. Don’t you  _ ever _ come back, Ahn, do you understand me? You’re fucking  _ fired _ .”

Taeil breezed past him again, ignoring his continued spittle-flying fury and securing an arm around the taller man as he led them both back out. “Don’t worry about it too much, okay? We’ll take care of it.”

“Promise?” Jaehyo asked. His voice came out smaller than he intended. 

“Promise.”

Yukwon had vanished from them some time ago, back out onto the floor where he and Jihoon had managed to corner Hanbin. They both beamed when the pair came back out, but turned back to their conversation despite the ignored tables. 

“He’s still yelling,” Chanwoo murmured, halting on his way to take dishes to the back. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Jaehyo told him, mournful. “I didn’t mean to- I mean-”

“You fired?”

He nodded. His uninjured hand dragged down his face and the hand around his waist held him close. 

“We’ll take care of it,” Taeil assured him, offering a smile. “Get through tonight and it’ll get better.”

Chanwoo turned, looking down at him unsurely. “How?”

Taeil turned to look at Jihoon, a bright smile on his face and a hand on Hanbin’s shoulder. “He’s very likable and I am very stubborn. Jaehyo said we could take care of it, so we will.”

“Can you be less ominous?” Jaehyo sighed.

Taeil beamed up at him. 

“No.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me on twitter and curiouscat!! @6uglyguysandjae

**Author's Note:**

> Shout at me on twitter!! @6uglyguysandjae


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